tibraxy  of  Che  Cheolocjiccd  £mimvy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BV  2070  .T46  1888 
Thoburn,  J.  M.  1836-1922. 
Missionary  addresses 


MISSIONARY  ADDRESSES. 


BY 


u 


REV.  J.  M.  THOBURN,  D.D, 


NEW  YORK: 
PHILLIPS    &    HUNT. 

CINCINNATI: 
CRANSTON  &   STOWE. 

1888. 


PREFACE. 


HTMIE  first  five  lectures  contained  in  this  little 
volume  were  delivered  before  the  students  of 
the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  February  14-18,  1887, 
and  were  published  early  in  April.  The  remaining 
five  lectures  were  delivered  before  the  students  of 
the  School  of  Theology  of  the  Boston  University, 
March  12-16,  1888.  The  edition  of  the  first  series 
having  become  exhausted,  the  whole  ten  lectures 
have  been  incorporated  into  a  single  volume,  and  in 
the  hope  of  contributing  in  some  small  measure  to 
the  advancement  of  the  great  missionary  enterprise 
they  are  in  this  form  presented  to  the  Christian 
public.  J.  M.  T. 

Kingston,  Ohio,  March  30,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  The  Spirit  of  Missions 1 

II.  The  Young  Missionary's  Call  and  Equipment.  23 

III.  Missionary  Methods 43 

IV.  The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen 66 

V.  Missionary  Service  as  a  Career 86 

VI.  The  Farewell  Commandment 107 

VII.  The  Beggar  at  our  Gate 127 

VIII.  The  New  Missionary  Era 148 

IX.  The  World's   Pentecost 171 

X.  TnE  Prophet  to  the  Nations 196 


MISSIONARY  ADDRESSES. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  MISSIONS. 

I  HAVE  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  the  excitement 
which  attended  the  first  discovery  of  gold  in  Cal- 
ifornia. It  spread  all  over  the  country  and  pervaded 
all  classes  of  society.  Every  city  and  town  and  village 
and  rural  community  sent  forth  its  representatives  to 
the  then  unknown  regions  of  the  Pacific  coast  to  join 
in  the  search  for  gold.  It  was  a  great  movement,  and 
one  which  in  many  of  its  features  had  never  before 
been  witnessed  in  our  country.  If  we  ask,  What  was 
the  animating  principle  of  that  movement  ?  it  is  not 
difficult  to  give  a  full  and  sufficient  reply.  First,  and 
chiefly,  there  was  that  love  of  gold  so  strong  in  our 
common  human  nature,  and  which  responds  so  easily 
to  every  appeal  which  is  made  to  it.  Bright  and 
eager  hopes  were  cherished  by  the  adventurers  who 
sallied  forth  to  those  distant  fields,  that  in  a  short 
time  and  with  comparatively  slight  effort  they  would 
succeed  in  gathering  from  the  golden  sands  enough 
treasure  to  make  them  rich  for  life.  Then  there  was 
that  love  of  adventure  which  forms  so  striking  an 
element  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  character,  and  which 
especially  manifests  itself  among  young  men  who  are 
fitted  for  daring  enterprises.  Ambition,  too,  put  in 
its  appeal,  and  not  a  few  of  those  who  ventured  forth 


2  Mission  a  i:y    A.DDBE8BEB. 

saw  in  the  future  growth  of  a  great  golden  State  on 
the   Pacific  coast  opportunities  to  rise   to  eminence 

and  power.      Added  to  all  these   motives,  then;  was  a 

spirit,  of  romance  which  seemed  to  add  a  glow  to  the 

whole  picture  as  it,  presented  itself  to  the  imagina- 
tion, and  which  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  interest 
with  which  the  movement  was  regarded. 

In  the  dosing  years  of   the   last  century   the  great 

modern  missionary  movement  of  the  world  was  in- 
augurated. It  was  some  time  in  getting  in  motion, 
and  in  gaining  sufficient  momentum  to  make  it  a  ree- 


B- e 


ognized  movement  of  the  Christian  world;  hut  with 

every  succeeding,  year  it  has  been  gaining  stendily 
both  in  the  extent  of  its  operations  and  in  the  hold 
which  it  has  secured  upon  tin;  minds  and  hearts  of 
tin;  Christian  public.  It  was  never  more  potent  for 
good  and  never  more  full  of  promise  than  at  the 
present.  It  can  never  again  be  left  out  of  any  esti- 
mate either  of  the  character  of  Christianity  as  a  whole, 
or  of  its  present  operations,  or  its  future  prospects. 
It  becomes,  then,   a,   most   important  and    interesting 

inquiry  as  to  what  has  been  and  still  is  the  animating 

spirit  of  this  movement.  Like  the  exodus  to  Cali- 
fornia in  former  days,  this  greater  movement  of 
Christian  evangelism  toward  the  heathen  nations  of 

the  world  may  he  traced  distinctly  to  certain  animat- 
ing causes,  and  if  we  would  understand  it  fully  we 
must  study  these  carefully  and  see  how  far  they  enter 

into  the  work  as  we  are  accustomed  to  view  it,  or  as 
we  may  Ik;  personally  interested  in  it.  In  a,  work  so 
vast,  so  widely  extended,  and  so  Complicated,  it  would 
he  impossible  to  point  out  all  the  various  inllueiices 
which  ailect  it,  but  in  its  best  phases  we  may  safely 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  3 

assume  that  a  genuine  missionary  work  will  be  dis- 
tinguished by  the  following  marks: 

First,  It,  is  prompted  supremely  by  the  constrain- 
ing love  of  Christ.  This  is  a  lofty  standard,  but  it  is 
a  true  standard,  and  should  never  be  lowered.  It  is  to 
be  feared,  however,  that  to  many  persons  missionary 
work  means  little  or  nothing  more  than  a  civilizing 
agency.  It  is,  perhaps,  well  for  governments  to  re- 
gard it  as  such,  and  it  of  course  must  be  recognized 
as  one  part  of  the  missionary's  work  to  purify  and 
elevate  the  civilization  of  the  people  to  whom  ho  goes; 

but  this  is  only  a  secondary  part  of  his  mission.  The 
motive  power  which  animates  him  supremely  is  the 
love  of  Christ — a  love  which,  as  every  Christian  knows, 
comprehends  in  its  embrace  the  whole  human  race. 
The  Christian  loves  as  his  Master  docs.  His  love  is 
not  and  cannot  be  circumscribed  by  national  boundary 
linos,  by  race  dilforonces,  by  popular  prejudices  or  by 
any  artificial  restrictions.  A  recent  popular  writer 
has  said  that  the  belief  of  future  punishment  has 
one  compensating  advantage,  in  that  it  prompts  Chris- 
tians to  go  to  tin;  waste  places  of  the  earth  to  try  to 
save  the  nations  which  they  honestly  believe  to  be 
perishing,  and  Ik;  half  consents  to  waive  his  objections 
to  a  repugnant  doctrine  in  view  of  the  good  that  re- 
sults from  it.  He,  and  all  others  who  talk  like  him, 
hardly  understand, the  alphabet  of  the  subject  which 
they  discuss.     The  language  of  the  true  missionary 

every-where  in  our  day  is  precisely  that  of  the  first  great 

missionary  whom  the  world  ever  saw:  "The  love  of 
Christ  constraineth  us."  When  that  love  is  first  kin- 
dled in  the  human  heart  its  possessor  at  once  begins 
to  feel  an  irrepressible  lon^in^  to  have  others  share 


4  Missionary  Addresses. 

it  with  him.  He  has,  it  is  true,  a  vivid  realization  of 
the  awful  consequences  of  willful  sin  and  willful  re- 
jection of  God's  promises,  and  may  thus  be  said  to 
"know  the  terror  of  the  Lord,"  but,  although  know- 
ing this  terror,  his  controlling  motive  as  an  animating 
principle  is  not  the  fear,  but  the  love,  of  Christ.  It  is 
a  notable  fact  that  a  man  who  ignores  or  denies  the 
terror  of  Jehovah  and  his  lawr  seldom  seems  to  have 
any  thing  like  a  fervent  realization  of  the  love  of 
Christ,  and  while  he  does  not  try  to  save  the  heathen 
world  from  an  awful  hell,  he  tries  just  as  little  to  win 
it  to  the  love  of  Christ.  The  true  missionary  does 
not  tamper  with  the  truth,  does  not  shut  his  eyes  to 
facts,  does  not  believe  sin  to  be  harmless,  but  none 
the  less  is  he  constrained,  at  every  step  of  his  Christian 
pilgrimage  and  at  every  stroke  of  his  Christian  labor, 
by  the  supreme  love  of  Christ  in  his  soul.  He  goes 
to  a  heathen  land  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  his  Mas- 
ter came  to  a  heathen  world.  He  is  impelled  by  love, 
and  love  sits  enthroned  in  his  heart  throughout  his 
whole  career. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  Christians  are  partakers  of 
the  love  of  Christ,  and  hence  that  there  is  nothing 
distinctive  in  the  love  which  a  missionary  is  said  to 
possess.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  same 
love  may  be  possessed  in  varying  degrees,  and  that  it 
may  affect  different  persons  differently,  according  to 
the  width  of  their  views,  the  scope  of  their  operations, 
and  the  extent  of  their  plans.  A  man  will  not  love 
those  whom  he  does  not  know,  or  of  whom  he  has  not 
heard.  The  great  majority  of  people  live  in  a  very 
circumscribed  world.  Their  thoughts,  their  hopes, 
their  interests,  are  limited  by  their  ewn  immediate 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  5 

surroundings.  In  the  first  generation  after  the 
.Reformation  the  Christians  of  the  Protestant  world 
were  so  absorbed  in  their  own  struggles  that  they  had 
little  time  to  think  of  the  nations  sitting  in  darkness, 
and  but  limited  means  with  which  to  reach  them  or 
attempt  to  do  them  good.  But  with  the  great  spiritual 
revival  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  England  and 
America  came  the  dawn  of  a  better  day.  The  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  most  evangelical  Christians  of  that 
period  began  to  be  enlightened,  and  here  and  there 
men  began  to  be  moved  with  strange  longings  for 
the  salvation  of  the  heathen  world.  They  were  filled 
not  only  with  the  constraining  love  of  Christ,  but 
they  cherished  this  love  together  with  an  enlarged 
view  of  the  necessities  of  the  world.  They  were  not 
better,  perhaps,  than  others  who  had  gone  before 
them,  but  God  had  planted  their  feet  upon  a  higher 
eminence.  They  possessed  a  better  vantage  ground. 
They  saw  great  nations  as  clearly  as  others  had  seen 
neighboring  towns  and  villages.  They  perceived  that 
the  Saviour  from  his  throne  in  glory  was  looking  upon 
all  the  nations  with  an  impartial  love,  that  he  had 
died  for  all  alike,  and  that  he  still  loved  all  alike,  and 
their  hearts  were  fired  with  a  new  and  unquenchable 
desire  to  see  all  the  nations  gathered  into  the  Chris- 
tian fold.  That  was  the  true  spirit  of  modern  mis- 
sions, and  nothing  can  take  its  place.  The  young  man 
who  is  not  thus  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ  to 
devote  himself  to  missionary  work,  should  never  be 
constrained  by  any  thing  else.  In  other  words,  it  is 
not  worth  his  while  to  go  to  the  mission  field.  He 
will  be  disappointed  if  he  goes,  and  will  be  a  disap- 
pointment to  those  to  whom  he  goes. 


6  Missionary  Addresses. 

Second — Obedience  to  a  specific  command  of 
Christ  is  another  element  in  what  may  be  called  the 
spirit  of  modern  missions.  It  seems  like  a  mere  truism 
to  say  it,  but  it  has  to  be  repeated  over  and  over  again  a 
thousand  times  before  people  give  heed  to  the  fact 
that  our  Saviour  has  left  on  record  a  specific  com- 
mand to  his  people  to  "  disciple  all  nations."  This  is 
the  great  work  which  is  required  of  his  disciples  of 
the  present  day.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  choice,  or  of  a 
balancing  of  advantages,  or  of  a  comparison  of  rival 
claims,  but  a  supreme  question  of  obedience  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

No  man  has  any  more  right  to  question  our  duty 
to  evangelize  the  nations  than  he  has  to  set  aside  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  or  the  keeping  of  any 
other  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  No  other  work  can 
take  the  place  of  this.  No  fidelity  to  any  other  cause 
can  atone  for  the  omission  of  this  duty.  That  which 
is  sometimes  called  home  mission  work  might  be 
proved  to  be  a  thousand  times  more  fruitful  than  real 
missionary  work  among  the  nations  who  know  not 
God  ;  its  workers  might  be  more  devoted,  and  in  their 
way  better  men  and  women,  and  money  expended  in 
it  might  produce  greater  results  than  if  sent  abroad  ; 
but  all  these  considerations  would  not  affect  in  the  slight- 
est particular  the  fact  that  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth 
has  given  his  people  this  specific  work  of  evangelizing 
all  the  nations  that  sit  in  darkness.  Do  all  conceiv- 
able kinds  of  good  work  done  in  one  country  excuse 
the  omission  of  one  specific  duty  in  another  ?  "  This 
ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  have  left  the  other 
undone"  will,  I  fear,  be  the  language  of  Him  that  sit- 
teth  upon  the  throne  in  the  last  day  to  those  in  the 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  7 

churches  who,  with  an  open  Bible  before  them,  have 
failed  to  obey  the  last  command  left  on  record  for  us 
by  the  Saviour  before  his  ascension.  I  often  think 
that  in  our  day,  when  the  tendency  to  substitute  a 
sentimental  religion  for  one  of  deep  spiritual  life  and 
power  is  so  apparent,  there  is  great  danger  of  looking 
lightly  upon  the  solemn  consequences  of  disobedience 
to  God.  It  seems  to  be  assumed  that  if  a  man  is  a 
Christian  his  Christianity  will  be  accepted  as  a  com- 
pensation for  a  certain  degree  of  disobedience.  In 
other  words,  the  law  of  God  must  not  be  too  rigidly  in- 
terpreted and  applied ;  and  it  thus  happens  that  not  only 
individuals  but  whole  congregations  seem  to  forget 
that  faith  and  obedience  are  inseparable.  People  can- 
not exercise  faith  while  they  are  disobedient  to  even 
one  duty.  In  the  New  Testament  the  two  words  are 
used  in  some  instances  interchangeably.  Those  who 
do  not  obey  cannot  believe,  in  the  New  Testament 
sense  of  the  word,  and  persistent  disobedience  to  one 
of  the  most  important  commands  ever  given  cannot 
but  paralyze  the  faith  of  the  Church  and  enervate 
her  right  arm  of  power  in  the  day  of  battle.  May 
not  the  feebleness  of  the  universal  Church,  which  so 
many  mournfully  lament,  be  owing  in  a  great  measure 
to  this  conspicuous  neglect  of  duty  ?  The  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth  has  given  the  word,  Go.  It  is  spe- 
cific. We  are  not  to  wait  until  the  distant  nations 
come  to  our  shores  ;  we  are  not  to  wait  until  indirect 
Christian  influences  slowly  permeate  through  the 
world  ;  we  are  not  to  trust  to  secondary  agencies,  but 
we  are  to  go  to  the  nations  themselves,  as  they  are 
found  in  the  dwelling-places  which  God  has  marked 
out  for  them.     We  are  to  evangelize,  disciple,  in  short, 


8  Missionary  Addresses. 

Christianize  them.  Heaven  and  earth  alike  have 
heard  the  command.  The  very  heathen  know  that 
every  consistent  Christian  must  be  intent  upon  execut- 
ing this  great  commission,  and  before  heaven  and  earth 
alike  the  universal  Church  is  inconsistent  and  unfaith- 
ful so  long  and  so  far  as  she  neglects  to  obey  this 
solemn  command  of  her  risen  Master.  She  can 
never  be  strong,  never  shine  forth  in  her  true  glory, 
never  rise  in  her  true  dignity  before  the  nations,  never 
move  forward  in  the  pathway  of  victory  marked  out 
for  her,  while  closing  her  ears  to  the  very  marching 
orders  of  the  Captain  of  her  salvation  and  neglect- 
ing the  very  purpose  for  which  she  has  been  organized 
on  earth.  It  should  be  the  duty  of  every  preacher, 
of  every  watchman  commissioned  to  stand  upon  the 
walls  of  Zion,  to  lift  up  his  voice  against  this  wide- 
spread spirit  of  disobedience.  The  welfare  of  the 
Church  in  Christian  lands,  as  well  as  the  hope  of  the 
Church  in  heathen  lands,  alike  depend  upon  immediate 
and  implicit  obedience  of  the  original  command,  not  one 
iota  of  which  has  been  withdrawn,  to  go  to  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  and  disciple  all  the  nations  of 
mankind. 

Third — The  true  missionary  spirit  implies  an  in- 
tense devotion  to  the  great  work  undertaken.  This 
devotion  knows  no  limitation  and  can  admit  none.  It 
takes  its  model  from  Him  who  left  the  riches  and 
glory  of  the  kingdom  above  and  for  our  sakes  became 
poor ;  who  literally  "  emptied  himself  of  all  but  love  ;" 
who  shared  not  only  our  low  estate,  but  accepted  the 
lowest  place  among  the  lowly  ;  who  became  a  servant 
while  heir  to  the  crown  of  the  universe.  There  is  a 
cheap  devotion  abroad  in  the  world  which  is  of  no 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  0 

service  in  the  mission  field,  and  which  cannot  be  made 
a  substitute  of  this  higher  devotion  which  partakes  of 
the  very  nature  of  Christ  himself.  It  is  a  very  easy 
thing,  when  one  thinks  of  going  as  a  missionary  to  a 
foreign  field,  to  so  dwell  upon  a  few  sacrifices  that 
are  to  be  made  as  to  make  it  seem  that  a  very  noble 
devotion  is  being  exhibited.  But  a  very  brief  expe- 
rience in  the  missionary  work  never  fails  to  dispel 
the  illusion.  Christian  devotion  can  never  be  limited 
to  specific  details,  no  matter  how  many  or  how  im- 
portant they  may  seem.  It  is  simple  in  its  nature, 
although  comprehensive  in  its  influence.  It  simply 
means  that  the  disciple  is  devoted  to  the  service  set 
before  him,  as  his  Master  who  requires  this  act  from 
him  was  when  on  his  mission  to  earth.  He  literally 
keeps  nothing  back  ;  he  waives  his  own  rights,  relin- 
quishes his  own  advantages,  erases  all  his  hopes,  and 
places  himself  unreservedly  at  the  disposal  of  Him 
whose  he  is  and  whom  he  serves. 

It  is  sometimes  easyt  to  make  great  sacrifices 
without  being  thus  wholly  devoted.  If  any  one 
were  to  ask  me  for  marks  of  true  devotion  on  the 
part  of  a  young  missionary  I  should  not  point  to 
his  forsaking  his  native  land  and  bidding  adieu  to 
all  his  friends,  but  I  should  watch  him  when  with 
his  brother  missionary  he  enters  the  cabin  of  the 
vessel  which  is  to  convey  him  to  his  distant  field.  I 
should  notice  how  willing  he  was  to  give  his  broth- 
er missionary  the  best  berth  and  the  most  conven- 
ient places  for  his  articles  of  baggage.  I  should 
notice  how  habitually  willing  he  was  not  only  to 
prefer  his  brother  in  honor,  but  also  in  all  lit- 
tle matters  pertaining  to  comfort  and  convenience. 


10  Missionary  Addresses. 

A  man  who  cannot  sacrifice  a  little,  will  not  relinquish 
greater  things.  The  missionary,  like  his  Master,  who 
was  more  homeless  than  the  jackal  and  the  birds,  will 
think  every  thing  of  his  work  and  little  of  himself. 
He  will  be  among  his  humble  converts  like  one  who 
serves,  and  not  like  one  who  rules.  He  will  yield  his 
own  preference  in  a  second  whenever  the  interests  of 
bis  great  work  seem  to  demand  it.  He  will  remem- 
ber he  is  for  the  work  and  not  the  work  for  him. 

It  may  be,  and  very  probably  will  be,  said  that  a 
similar  devotion  should  be  exhibited  in  Christian  lands 
as  well  as  in  mission  fields.  Very  true ;  but  that  which 
is  important  here  is  a  necessity  there.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  thousands  of  Christian 
ministers  act  too  much  upon  the  principle  that  the 
churches  are  for  them,  and  not  they  for  the  churches, 
but  their  mistake  cannot  be  imitated  by  the  foreign 
missionary  without  bringing  an  absolute  paralysis 
upon  his  work.  As  before  remarked,  he  goes  to  his 
distant  field  as  his  Master  first  came  to  earth,  and  he 
must  look  to  that  Master  as  his  model  rather  than  to 
frail  worms  of  earth  who  sometimes  carry,  without 
wearing,  the  prophetic  mantle  of  ministers  of  Chris- 
tian churches. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  those  who  go 
abroad  as  missionaries  are  to  have  a  monopoly  of  this 
devotion.  The  whole  work  must  be  carried  on  in  this 
spirit.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  must  be  conceded  that 
the  missionaries  who  go  abroad  are  faithful  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Church  which  sends  them.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  law  of  nature  asserts  itself ;  the  stream 
does  not  rise  higher  than  the  fountain.  The  home 
churches  engaged  in  this  work  must  cherish  the  de- 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  11 

votion  which  makes  success  in  the  work  a  possibility. 
As  individuals  and  organized  congregations  they  must 
lay  their  all  upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice ;  they  must  be 
willing  and  ready  not  only  to  give  their  silver  and 
gold,  but  their  sons  and  daughters,  the  young  men 
and  women  from  their  Sunday-schools  and  training 
institutions.  They  must  appreciate  the  honor  and  the 
responsibility  which  the  Saviour  has  laid  upon  them, 
and  they  must  prepare  like  him  to  yield  up,  if  need 
be,  every  thing  for  the  great  enterprise  which  has 
been  intrusted  to  them.  Until  they  do  this  they 
cannot  and  do  not  consistently  prosecute  missionary 
work.  How  far  our  churches  fall  short  of  this  Irrgh 
standard  I  need  not  point  out.  They  are  abundantly 
able  to  prosecute  all  the  work  which  has  thus  far 
been  set  before  them.  In  our  own  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  it  would  be  easy  to  find  possibly  one 
hundred,  but  certainly  two  hundred  men  who  could 
take  up  the  whole  work  in  our  foreign  fields  as  it  ex- 
ists to-day,  and  carry  it  forward  vigorously  and  suc- 
cessfully without  embarrassing  themselves  in  busi- 
ness or  curtailing  their  business  enterprises  in  any 
particular ;  and  yet  in  a  church  like  this,  where  rich 
men  are  not  rare,  where  poor  men  are  but  too  few, 
and  where  general  comfort  is  the  rule,  this  great  mis- 
sionary cause  is  obliged  to  walk  up  and  down  the 
aisles  of  our  sanctuaries  once  a  year  in  the  garb  of  a 
beggar — has  to  stand  at  the  door  of  the  luxurious  pew 
of  the  rich  man  and  beg  for  a  few  dollars  to  be  given 
as  a  favor,  instead  of  accepting  a  noble  offering  laid 
upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  Here  and  there  we  may 
see  a  better  state  of  things,  but,  taking  the  whole 
country  over,  this  is  what  we  behold.  The  standard 
2 


12  Missionary  Addresses. 

which  should  be  waving  high  in  the  sky  of  heaven  is 
railing  low  in  the  dust  of  earth.  The  true  spirit  of 
devotion  is  limited  to  a  few,  and  these  few  are  for  the 
most  part  made  up  of  God's  own  poor.  If  we  would 
win  the  world  for  Christ,  if  we  would  expect  success 
in  the  Church  commensurate  with  the  boundless  work 
to  be  accomplished,  we  must  exhibit  a  purer  and 
nobler  devotion  than  any  thing  which  the  world  is 
witnessing  to-day.  We  must  realize  that  this  work  is 
a  common  work,  and  that  Christian  devotion  is  not 
the  monopoly  of  the  few,  but  the  privilege  and  duty 
of  the  multitude. 

Fourth — The  true  missionary  spirit  has  an  element 
of  heroism  in  it,  which  qualifies  its  possessor  for  faithful 
service  in  great  emergencies  and  a  firm  adherence  to 
duty  in  the  most  fierce  furnace  fires.  Here  again, 
however,  we  are  to  distinguish  between  the  spurious 
and  the  genuine  As  with  devotion  so  with  heroism  ; 
there  is  a  cheap  substitute,  which  sometimes  passes  by 
that  name,  that  possesses  very  little  of  the  material 
out  of  which  heroes  are  made.  In  an  ordinary  mis- 
sion field  no  special  act  of  daring  may  fall  to  the 
missionary's  lot.  To  go,  for  instance,  to  a  mission 
field  in  India  does  not  call  for  the  exercise  of  a 
greater  physical  courage  than  is  required  in  ordinary 
Christian  work  in  the  United  States.  If  a  missionary 
to  the  jungle  dwellers,  he  stands  in  no  fear  of  the 
ravages  of  vthe  wild  beasts  around  him.  He  goes 
among  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans  alike,  without 
fear  of  outward  persecution  or  personal  harm.  He 
lives  in  a  country  infested  with  poisonous  serpents 
but  rarely  sees  one,  and  practically  is  exposed  to  no 
more  danger  from  them  than  you  are  from  a  light- 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  13 

ning  stroke  in  an  American  summer.  Now  and  then, 
it  is  true,  an  emergency  may  give  him  an  opportunity 
for  exercising  his  courage,  but  the  general  rule  is 
otherwise.  The  missionary's  career  in  a  country  like 
India  is  apt  to  grow  monotonous  rather  than  become 
romantic,  and  it  serves  no  good  purpose  to  speak  of 
dangers  which  do  not  practically  exist,  and  to  laud 
the  simple  missionary  as  one  of  the  world's  great 
heroes.  To  do  so  is  to  set  up  a  false  standard  of  her- 
oism which  is  really  unworthy  both  of  the  missionary 
and  the  cause  which  he  serves. 

But  while  thus  protesting  against  this  false  stand- 
ard I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  true  missionary, 
however  common-place  his  career  may  be,  ought  to 
have  the  spirit  of  a  hero  in  him.  It  is  moral  courage 
which  he  needs  rather  than  physical,  although  in 
some  fields  the  one  may  be  as  needful  as  the  other. 
We  all  know  but  too  well  that  those  who  plunge  into 
the  wilds  of  Africa  need  the  spirit  of  a  martyr  as 
well  as  the  courage  of  a  pioneer.  It  was  only  yester- 
day that  the  same  courage  was  required  in  Madagas- 
car; it  has  been  called  for  very  recently  in  some 
fields  in  China,  and  it  may  be  in  demand  in  any  other 
non-christian  country  at  any  unexpected  hour. 

I  have  long  been  persuaded  that  the  devil  will  stir 
up  more  vigorous  and  cruel  persecutions  in  all  non- 
christian  countries,  as  soon  as  it  becomes  evident  that 
the  Christian  Church  is  really  in  earnest  in  her  deter- 
mination to  pull  down  his  strongholds  and  win  the 
world  for  Christ.  The  latent  power  of  the  kingdom 
of  darkness  in  this  world  is  greater  than  we  are  apt 
to  suspect.  ."While  we  pursue  our  desultory,  half 
earnest  methods,  we  need  not  expect  to  encounter 


14  Missionary  Addresses. 

very  fierce  opposition.  People  very  often  ask  me  if 
I  think  another  mutiny  may  be  expected  in  India  like 
the  bloody  catastrophe  of  1857.  I  tell  them  no ;  that 
I  do  not  think  that  bloody  drama  will  be  enacted 
again,  but  at  the  same  time  I  sometimes  anticipate  a 
great  convulsion  in  India  before  that  mighty  empire 
shall  all  be  won  for  Christ.  In  what  form  this  catas- 
trophe will  take  place,  from  what  quarter  the  danger 
will  come,  I  cannot  tell ;  I  only  know  that  in  a  land 
where  Satan  has  so  long  held  his  seat  he  will  not 
yield  up  his  kingdom  without  a  desperate  struggle. 
I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  this  struggle  will  be  of  a 
political  character.  I  do  not  know  or  pretend  to 
foresee  whether  the  blow  will  come  from  the  Russians, 
from  the  Mohammedans,  or  from  the  misguided  poli- 
ticians of  Europe  ;  I  only  know  that  we  can  judge  the 
future  by  the  past,  and  in  all  past  history  »great  relig- 
ious revolutions  have  been  attended  by  great  national 
convulsions,  and  hence  in  India  we  need,  and  for 
ages  we  shall  need,  missionary  heroes.  The  same  is 
true  all  over  the  world.  Even  in  Japan,  where  a  na- 
tion seems  about  to  be  born  in  a  day,  and  where  the 
process  of  conversion  seems  to  be  attended  with  no 
more  disturbance  in  the  empire  than  is  produced  by 
the  dawn  or  the  sunrise,  I  cannot  feel  assured  that 
the  transformation  of  so  great  a  nation  will  be  effected 
without  the  fierce  struggles  and  great  convulsions 
which  have  attended  all  similar  movements  in  other 
lands. 

But  even  if  this  view  should  prove  a  mistaken  one, 
if  the  whole  world  should  be  converted  by  a  quiet 
process  going  on  as  silently  as  the  leaven  spreads 
through  the  meal,  or  as  the  little  germ  of  mustard 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  15 

seed  expands  into  a  great  tree,  yet  even  then  the 
highest  type  of  heroism  will  still  be  demanded  from 
the  missionary.  Moral  heroism  is  as  much  superior 
to  physical  as  the  soul  is  superior  to  the  body.  The 
obscure  missionary  who  carries  on  his  quiet  work  in 
some  remote  corner  of  the  earth  is  tested  again  and 
again  in  a  way  which  people  in  a  country  like  Amer- 
ica can  hardly  appreciate.  His  courage  is  tested  at  a 
thousand  different  points.  He  has  to  be  firm  and 
brave  in  standing  for  the  right  when  a  little  yielding 
would  seem  to  hold  out  assurance  of  great  success ; 
he  has  often  to  stand  firm  and  true  against  conduct 
which  seems  to  involve  but  a  little  wrong,  and  yet 
which  would  if  tolerated  for  a  day  soon  become  too 
strong  for  him,  and,  cutting  its  way  through  every 
barrier,  sweep  like  a  devastating  flood  over  his  fair 
field.  His  courage  needs  to  be  all  the  greater  because 
he  stands  alone.  Most  of  you  living  in  a  Christian 
land,  surrounded  by  Christian  influences  and  held  up 
as  you  are  by  Christian  friends,  little  know  how 
much  you  really  lean  upon  these  outward  supports. 
Not  one  man  in  a  thousand  in  a  country  like  this 
knows  what  it  is  to  stand  alone.  We  mutually  sup- 
port one  another.  We  bear  up  one  another's  hands; 
we  cheer  one  another's  hearts,  and  we  often  think  we 
are  brave  and  strong  when  each  of  us  is  leaning  upon 
the  courage  and  strength  of  a  thousand  others.  Many 
a  man  who  has  been  regarded  a  pillar  of  strength  at 
home  proves  as  weak  as  a  shorn  Samson  when  he 
goes  to  live  among  strangers.  Many  a  man  who  re- 
sists the  devil  as  he  would  a  roaring  lion  while  living 
in  his  home,  surrounded  by  true  friends,  yields  to 
every  form  of  temptation  when  living  in  a  community 


16  Missionary  Addresses. 

where  no  one  helps  him  to  resist  evil.  The  mission- 
ary should  be  a  man  who  is  not  only  brave  enough  to 
stand  in  the  ranks  on  the  battlefield,  but  if  need  be 
to  stand  alone  at  his  remote  outpost  for  a  long  series 
of  years,  keeping  his  face  like  flint  against  the  foe, 
yielding  nothing,  shrinking  from  nothing,  asking  for 
nothing,  but  steadily  maintaining  his  ground  with  a 
courage  which  nothing  can  daunt,  with  an  ardor 
which  nothing  can  chill,  and  with  a  faith  as  steadfast 
as  the  eternal  foundation  upon  which  it  rests. 

Fifth — A  genuine,  perhaps  I  might  say  an  apos- 
tolic, enthusiasm  is  another  distinguishing  mark  of  a 
true  missionary  spirit.  A  century  ago  this  word  en- 
thusiasm was  an  epithet  of  opprobrium,  and  was  very 
commonly  used  in  the  sense  in  which  we  now  employ 
the  word  fanaticism.  A  man  fired  with  enthusiasm 
was  supposed  to  be  more  or  less  a  reckless  fanatic,  and 
it  was  long  before  it  began  to  be  noticed  that  some- 
how or  other  many  of  this  kind  of  men  managed  to 
succeed  better  than  their  cold,  calculating  and  some- 
times heartless  critics.  Little  by  little  it  became 
clearly  recognized  that  there  was  an  element  of  power 
in  genuine  enthusiasm,  until  at  last  the  word  has 
been  redeemed  from  its  former  misuse,  while  another 
and  more  suitable  term  has  been  employed  to  represent 
that  evil  spirit  of  fanaticism  which  never  fails  to 
make  havoc  in  any  Christian  work  where  it  finds  a 
recognition.  A  hearty  enthusiasm  is  a  natural  out- 
growth of  genuine  Christianity,  and  nowhere  is  it 
more  in  place — nowhere  is  it  more  indispensable — 
than  in  the  wide  mission  fields  of  the  Church.  Paul 
the  apostle,  the  first  great  missionary  of  the  Christian 
dispensation,  was  an  enthusiast  in  the  best  sense  of  the 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  17 

term,  and  we  need  not  wonder  that  men  of  the  world, 
incapable  of  comprehending  such  a  character,  did  not 
hesitate  to  regard  him  as  beside  himself.  He  was  a 
man  who  had  unwavering  confidence  in  his  work,  ap- 
preciated the  grandeur  of  the  enterprise  and  the  sub- 
limity of  the  great  commission  with  which  he  had 
been  intrusted.  He  loved  his  work  ;  it  was  more  to 
him  than  his  meat  and  drink,  indeed  than  life  itself. 
He  was  wholly  absorbed  in  it.  There  was  not  the 
smallest  corner  in  his  heart  in  which  any  doubt  or 
question  could  find  lodgment  in  reference  to  his  call, 
to  the  character  of  his  work,  to  the  infinite  resources 
at  his  command,  to  the  victorious  career  set  before 
him,  and  to  the  certain  victory  with  which  both  he 
and  his  work  were  at  last  to  be  crowned.  Such  is  the 
enthusiasm  which  the  modern  missionary  needs  and 
should  exhibit;  and  such  is  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  both  the  Church  at  home  and  the  missionary 
abroad  should  engage  in  their  great  work.  Cold  cal- 
culations with  reference  to  possibilities  and  probabili- 
ties have  no  place  here.  Perfunctory  work  and 
conventional  services  are  as  much  out  of  place  as  they 
would  have  been  in  the  tours  of  Barnabas  and  Paul. 
The  Church  must  believe  in  the  work,  and,  accepting 
the  great  responsibility  which  her  Master  lays  upon 
her,  must  send  forth  her  children  in  the  spirit  of  the 
old  Spartan  mothers  who  bade  their  sons  farewell  as 
they  went  forth  to  battle,  telling  them  to  return 
either  bearing  their  shields  or  being  borne  upon  them. 
She  must  have  supreme  confidence  in  the  success  of 
this  great  enterprise.  Her  missionary  meetings  should 
be  convocations  of  great  joy,  her  songs  should  be  full 
of  exultant  hope  and  confidence,  and  her  prayers  should 


IS  Missionary  Addresses. 

ascend  unceasingly  for  the  consummation  so  long 
hoped  for,  so  distinctly  promised,  so  faithfully  assured, 
that  all  the  earth  shall  be  the  Lord's.  And  the  mis- 
sionaries who  go  to  their  distant  fields  should  go  in 
the  same  spirit.  They  do  not  go  to  try  an  experi- 
ment, they  do  not  dream  of  going  in  the  spirit  of  ad- 
venture, like  the  tourist  wandering  amid  the  ruins  of 
antiquity,  they  do  not  go  because  they  fail  to  find 
congenial  employment  at  home,  they  do  not  go  to 
spend  a  term  of  years  that  they  may  return  again  to 
an  honorable  rest  at  home,  thus  burying  their  ripest 
experience  and  throwing  away  the  very  best  years, 
perhaps,  of  their  possible  service ;  but  they  go  to  live 
and  labor  and  die  among  the  people  to  whom  God 
sends  them.  They  love  the  work  which  God  gives 
them  ;  they  love  the  people  among  whom  they  dwell ; 
they  love  the  associations  by  which  they  are  sur- 
rounded ;  they  are  full  of  hope  and  confidence ;  their 
songs  are  songs  of  victory,  and,  while  they  live  in  the 
day  of  small  things,  they  see  their  triumph  from  afar 
and  bring  it  nigh  by  the  power  of  a  vivid  faith  which 
never  for  a  moment  fails  them. 

The  value  of  such  enthusiasm  cannot  be  estimated 
too  highly.  It  is  easy  to  disparage  it,  it  is  easy  to 
say  its  possessors  are  too  sanguine,  that  they  are  rash 
and  impetuous,  or  short-sighted,  or  unwise,  but  the 
men  who  win  upon  moral  battle  fields  are,  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  men  of  this  very  kind. 

General  Grant  relates  in  his  Memoirs  how  it  was, 
during  the  closing  battles  of  our  civil  war,  that  the 
daily  increased  enthusiasm  of  his  soldiers  made  them 
capable  of  extraordinary  endurance.  They  marched 
twice  as  far  in  a  day  as  before  had  been  thought  pos- 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  19 

sible ;  they  seemed  never  to  grow  weary,  were  always 
eager  for  battle,  were  animated  by  extraordinary 
courage,  and  were  equal  to  all  the  demands  which 
were  made  upon  them.  Fifty  thousand  such  soldiers 
were  really  equal  to  one  hundred  thousand  similar 
men  lacking  their  enthusiasm.  So  it  is  in  the  mis- 
sion field  to-day.  Without  this  holy  enthusiasm  the 
noble  workers  who  occupy  the  frontier  posts  of  Chris- 
tianity must  be  weak  and  in  a  measure  timid,  and  un- 
equal to  the  tremendous  strain  which  from  time  to 
time  will  be  laid  upon  them.  They  are  men  from 
whom  both  God  and  the  Church  expect  great  achieve- 
ments, and  to  be  equal  to  their  stupendous  task  they 
need  to  be  fired  with  a  holy  ardor  which  will  only 
burn  more  brightly  in  the  midst  of  discouragement, 
and  which  all  the  powers  of  earth  and  hell  can  never 
quench. 

I  have  for  some  years  past  noticed,  at  times  with 
deep  concern,  the  development  of  a  certain  spirit  in 
connection  with  missionary  work  which  does  not 
seem  to  foster  this  enthusiasm  upon  which  I  place  so 
high  a  value.  In  things  non-essential  we  can  never 
be  too  careful  to  concede  to  a  brother  Christian  the 
right  to  differ  from  us,  and  hence  in  the  discussion  of 
opposing  views  concerning  the  date  and  character  of 
the  millennial  reign  I  have  long  conscientiously 
tried  to  avoid  anything  which  would  seem  like  antag- 
onizing the  views  of  those  who  differ  from  me,  and 
who  seem  to  be  not  only  as  conscientious,  but  much 
more  intense  in  their  convictions  than  myself.  If  a 
Christian  brother  is  persuaded  that  the  second  advent 
is  to  be  expected  at  an  early  period  I  am  more  than 
content  to  let  him  maintain  his  view.    Like  him  I,  too, 


20  Missionary  Addresses. 

believe  that  this  same  Jesus  will  conic  again,  and  like 
him  I  live  in  hope  expectant  of  being  made  like  my 
glorified  Master  when  he  appears  ;  but  that  which  fills 
me  wTith  concern  is  the  apparent  eagerness  with  which 
many,  apparently  feeling  it  necessary  for  the  main- 
tenance of  their  views,  teach  that  the  Gospel  is  essen- 
tially too  weak  to  cope  with  the  powers  of  darkness 
which  are  now  abroad  in  the  world.  We  even  hear 
it  taught  that  the  Gospel  was  never  intended  to  be 
the  means  of  converting  the  world,  and  has  already 
nearly  fulfilled  its  mission.  In  many  quarters  we 
hear  less  and  less  about  the  power  of  a  victorious 
Saviour,  and  more  about  the  advancing  powers  of  sin 
and  hell.  The  world  is  given  up  as  lost,  and  the  ut- 
most that  we  are  to  attempt  is  to  save  as  many  souls 
as  possible  from  the  sinking  wreck  before  it  goes 
down  forever.  We  search  in  vain  for  any  trace  of 
missionary  enthusiasm  here.  We  almost  seem  to 
concede  victory,  in  the  supreme  contest  between 
Christ  and  the  devil,  to  the  prince  of  darkness.  We 
forget  how  to  sing, 

Jesus !  the  name  high  over  all 

In  heaven,  or  earth,  or  sky; 
Angels  and  men  before  it  fall, 

And  devils  fear  and  fly. 

When  Barnabas  and  Saul  sallied  out  of  Antioch  on 
their  momentous  mission  they  knewr  no  such  dismal 
story  as  this.  They  preached  a  living,  conquering, 
triumphant  Jesus. 

Every  picture  of  our  risen  Master  which  the  New 
Testament  gives  us  after  the  morning  of  the  resurrec- 
tion is  one  in  which  he  is  portrayed  as  a  victorious 


The  Spirit  of  Missions.  21 

leader.  The  Christian  of  every  age  is  pointed  to  him 
going  forth  on  a  victorious  career,  conquering  and  to 
conquer,  with  the  sharp  two-edged  sword  of  the  word 
forever  proceeding  from  his  lips,  breaking  in  pieces 
and  subduing  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  even  as  the 
wonderful  prophet  in  his  vision  in  Babylon  had  fore- 
told that  lie  should  do.  Let  us  enter,  then,  this  great 
missionary  campaign,  which  is  to  culminate  in  the  sub- 
jugation of  all  the  nations,  wTith  the  confidence  of 
soldiers  who  follow  a  victorious  leader  and  who  serve 
an  omnipotent  King.  Let  it  never  for  a  moment  be 
conceded  that  the  powers  of  hell  are  stronger  to-day, 
or  the  resources  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness  greater, 
than  those  of  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ. 
Let  us  carefully  cherish  the  enthusiasm  of  soldiers 
who  fifrht  in  a  noble  warfare,  and  who  are  reaching 
that  period  in  a  great  campaign  wThen  victories  are  to 
be  won  upon  a  larger  scale  than  has  ever  been  wit- 
nessed before.  Let  us  see  in  what  God  is  doing,  as 
well  as  in  the  sure  word  of  promise  which  is  given, 
the  earnest  of  that  final  consummation  when  our 
Saviour  shall  have  broken  in  pieces  and  consumed  all 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  and  entered  upon  his 
eternal  reign  of  peace  and  love. 

My  dear  young  brethren,  not  many  of  you  will  be 
sent  forth  into  the  great  mission  field,  but  I  trust  that 
all  of  you  will  be  filled  with  the  true  spirit  of  mis- 
sions, and  serve  in  your  own  land  the  great  cause  as 
faithfully  as  if  preaching  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges. 
You  are  to  bear  a  most  important  responsibility.  You 
are  to  be  the  trumpeters  of  the  militant  host  of  the 
King  of  kings.  Let  your  trumpets  never  give  forth 
an  uncertain  sound  while  the  great  conflict   goes  on 


22  Missionary  Addresses. 

between  the  children  of  God  and  the  hosts  of  evil. 
Preach  a  gospel  of  victory.  Tell  jour  people,  and 
never  cease  telling  them,  that  Satan  is  a  conquered 
foe,  and  that  his  works  throughout  the  world  are  to 
be  utterly  destroyed.  Wars  are  to  cease  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  and  all  the  great  iniquities  which  dis- 
grace our  civilization  are  to  be  utterly  abolished. 
Jesus  shall  indeed  reign  over  all  the  nations,  and  our 
poor  earth  shall  become  the  happy  dwelling-place  of  a 
redeemed  race. 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  23 


THE  YOUNG  MISSIONARY'S  CALL  AND 
EQUIPMENT. 

IT  has  been  an  accepted  doctrine  among  all  the 
different  branches  of  the  great  Methodist  family 
since  the  days  of  John  Wesley,  that  no  man  has  a  right 
to  preach  until  he  is  called  of  God  to  do  so.  In  an  age 
when  most  of  the  pulpits  of  England  were  occupied 
by  men  who  knew  no  call  except  that  of  choice,  and 
who  performed  their  duties  in  a  perfunctory  and  lifeless 
manner,  God  began  to  raise  up  men  of  his  own  choice 
and  to  thrust  them  out  as  preachers  of  the  Gospel. 
Such  men  were  naturally  looked  upon  as  intruders  by 
those  who  had  been  quietly  assuming  that  they  were 
the  official  guardians  of  this  duty,  and  the  sharp  chal- 
lenge with  which  the  preachers  of  the  new  order 
were  met  led  them  to  consider  well  their  credentials. 
Hence  they  were  not  long  in  assuming  the  true  and 
only  safe  position  which  any  preacher  can  occupy : 
that  the  primary  call  to  this  wTork  comes  not  from 
flesh  and  blood,  but  from  God  himself.  The  true 
preacher  of  the  gospel  is  a  man  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  engage  in  this  hallowed  work.  In  like  man- 
ner it  has  generally,  though  not  universally,  been  ac- 
cepted as  a  most  important  truth,  that  a  missionary 
going  out  to  heathen  lands  should  first  receive  a 
specific  call  from  God  to  this  work.  Many  reasons 
might  be  stated  showing  how  needful  to  the  mission- 
ary  such  a  call  is,  but  it  will  suffice  to  point  to  the 


21  Missionary  Addresses. 

fact  that  since  the  days  of  William  Carey  large  num- 
bers of  foreign  missionaries  have  been  accustomed  to 
bear  witness  to  the  reception  of  such  a  call.  The  very 
nature  of  the  work  implies  that  God  would  himself 
summon  the  messengers  whom  he  sends  forth,  and 
the  experiences  of  vast  numbers  of  missionaries  of 
the  present  as  well  as  of  past  generations  attest  that 
such  a  summons  is  actually  sent  to  the  laborers.  I 
think  it  well  to  call  attention  to  the  importance  of  this 
call,  more  especially  because  we  begin  to  hear  it  ques- 
tioned in  many  quarters.  Young  men  are  urged  to 
select  this  work  on  their  own  responsibility,  because 
it  may  seem  to  be  an  urgent  one,  or  because  it  affords 
them  excellent  opportunities  for  usefulness,  or  for  any 
other  reason  which  is  not  inconsistent  with  religious 
duty.  For  one  I  cannot  advise,  much  less  urge,  any 
young  man  to  enter  so  lightly  upon  a  work  of  such 
transcendent  importance.  While  allowing  freely  that 
there  may  be  exceptions  in  the  case  of  a  man  going 
abroad  for  a  limited  period,  and  for  exceptional 
service,  such  as  preaching  to  an  English  congregation, 
or  teaching  in  an  English  school,  I  must  insist  with 
all  the  earnestness  of  my  heart  that  the  missionary 
who  goes  abroad  to  give  his  life  to  this  work  needs 
for  his  own  sake  a  special  divine  call,  while  the  inter- 
ests of  the  work  no  less  imperatively  demand  that 
only  those  thus  called  and  set  apart  should  be  admit- 
ted into  the  ranks  of  the  great  missionary  host. 

There  is  always  reason  to  fear  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  special  call  and  guidance  of  the  Spirit  will  be 
practically  overlooked  in  the  Church.  We  are  so 
prone  to  allow  every  thing  to  become  conventional, 
to  let  routine  usurp  the  place  of  power,  and  to  lose 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  25 

sight  of  the  divine  while  watching  keenly  the  human 
agency  employed,  that  we  need  ever  to  be  reminded 
that  it  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  given  in 
answer  to  faithful  prayer,  to  call  and  thrust  out 
laborers  in  every  part  of  God's  vast  field.  The  mis- 
takes of  fanatical  men  certainly  should  not  lead  us 
to  make  a  still  greater  mistake,  and  if  we  see  some 
misguided  Christians  following  their  own  fancies  in 
the  name  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  we  are  not  justified 
thereby  in  rejecting  the  guidance  of  that  Spirit,  and 
quietly  assuming  that  we  ■  have  in  practical  life  no 
clearer  light  than  that  of  our  own  fallible  judgment. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  God  is  forever  in  the  midst  of 
his  people,  calling,  prompting,  guiding  and  guarding 
them,  and  but  for  this  precious  aid  the  universal 
Christian  Church  would  be  little  better  than  a  vast 
army  of  blind  men  and  women.  There  is  no  danger 
whatever  of  error  in  this  respect  if  we  follow  as  God 
leads  and  not  as  our  fancy  dictates.  Ever  since  the 
call  of  Abraham  God's  people  have  been  a  called 
people,  and  ever  since  our  Saviour's  first  commission 
to  his  disciples  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  has  been 
sending  out,  from  time  to  time,  men  and  women  to 
special  tasks  assigned  directly  by  himself,  and  to  be 
performed  in  his  blessed  name.  The  great  mission- 
ary work  is  one  into  which  the  Lord  of  the  harvest 
sends  forth  reapers,  and  every  young  missionary 
should  clearly  settle  the  question  of  his  own  personal 
call  before  he  ventures  to  set  foot  on  a  foreign  shore. 
This  call  ordinarily  of  course  comes  directly  through 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  an  experienced  Christian  will 
seldom  accept  any  inward  impression,  however  clear 
and  powerful  it  may  be,  without  first  carefully  test- 


26  Missionary  Addresses. 

ing  it  by  such  means  as  God  places  within  his 
reach. 

This  testing  process  is  seldom  difficult  and  is  always 
possible.  As  a  general  rule,  three  agencies  will  be 
found  working  together  in  indicating  to  the  candidate 
his  pathway  of  duty.  First,  he  will  have  the  direct 
call  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  heart.  This  may  be  in 
the  form  of  a  general  impression  that  he  should  go, 
or  a  strange  yearning  desire  to  go,  or  a  conviction 
that  sooner  or  later  God  will  open  his  way  to  some 
mission  field  ;  or  it  may  in  some  cases  take  the  shape 
of  a  direct  call,  in  which,  although  no  words  are 
spoken,  yet  the  candidate  knows  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
lias  commanded  him  to  devote  himself  to  missionary 
work.  If  this  impression  or  conviction  be  of  God,  it 
will  in  nearly  all  cases  be  found  that  those  Chris- 
tian friends  to  whom  he  has  a  right  to  look  for  ad- 
vice will  be  somewhat  similarly  led  to  think  or  feel 
that  God  would  have  him  go  as  his  messenger  to  the 
nations  sitting  in  darkness.  Then,  in  addition  to  this 
token,  the  providence  of  God  sooner  or  later  will  be 
found  indicating  the  same  pathway  of  duty;  and  when 
these  three  agencies  all  combine  to  point  in  the  same 
direction  the  candidate  may  assume  without  any  hes- 
itation that  he  is  not  mistaken  in  his  convictions,  and 
that  God  in  very  deed  does  call  him  to  this  work. 

It  will  not  do,  however,  to  assume  that  such  calls 
are  always  given  in  any  one  particular  way.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  they  vary  more  or  less  in  every  one  of 
a  thousand  cases.  One  man  may  receive  his  first  im- 
pression by  a  direct  inward  call  from  the  Spirit  of 
God,  another  receives  his  from  a  word  spoken  by 
a  friend,  while  a  third  has  his  attention  called  to  the 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  27 

subject  by  some  remarkable  development  of  God's 
providence  ;  but  whichever  of  these  agencies  may  be 
first  employed,  the  other  indications  needed  will  not 
be  wanting  it*  the  candidate  is  willing  to  be  taught 
and  looks  constantly  upward  for  light.  It  matters 
not  what  the  first  or  second  impression  may  be,  pro- 
vided that  the  ultimate  ground  reached  is  that  of  an 
unquestionable  conviction  that  God  has  pointed  out 
the  way  in  which  the  young  missionary  is  to  walk. 
If  any  of  you  are  in  doubt  upon  this  subject,  my 
counsel  to  you  is  not  to  cast  it  all  aside  because  you 
do  not  feel  such  an  undoubted  call  as  I  have  described, 
but  rather  wait  upon  God  for  further  light. 

It  was  recently  said  at  a  great  missionary  meet- 
ing in  the  East  that  every  man  should  go  into 
the  foreign  mission  field  who  does  not  feel  a  specific 
call  to  remain  at  home.  While  admiring  the  enthu- 
siasm which  prompts  such  a  remark  I  cannot  com- 
mend the  advice.  I  would  say,  rather,  let  every 
young  man  whose  way  in  life  has  not  yet  been  marked 
out,  who  is  not  sure  whether  God  would  have  him 
labor  in  his  native  land  or  among  the  heathen,  bow 
before  the  mercy-seat  of  God  and  seek  until  he  finds 
the  guidance  which  he  needs.  For  one,  I  should  not 
like  to  work  anywhere  unless  sure  that  I  was  in  the 
place  God  had  chosen  for  me,  and  I  certainly  should 
not  wish  to  venture  out  in  any  part  of  the  heathen 
world  as  a  messenger  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unless 
commissioned  by  the  Saviour  himself  to  go  in  that 
character.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  view  of  the  im- 
measurable opportunities  afforded  in  that  vast  field,  in 
view  of  the  unspeakable  urgency  of  the  demand  for  la- 
borers in  it,  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  this  country 


28  Missionary  Addresses. 

yonng  ministers  go  out  from  their  theological  schools  to 
compete  with  one  another  for  positions  which  are  too 
few  in  number  to  give  employment  to  all  who  seek 
them,  I  should  certainly  make  the  question  of  my 
going  into  the  mission  field  one  of  earnest  and 
constant  prayer  until  God  should  decide  in  the 
negative. 

When  the  question  of  a  personal  call  is  settled 
the  next  step  in  the  young  missionary's  course  is  that 
of  equipping  himself  for  the  life-work  that  is  set  be- 
fore him.  It  will  never  do  to  assume,  as  is  sometimes 
done  at  the  present  day,  that  all  the  equipment  re- 
quired is  the  fact  of  the  call.  God  would  not  call 
any  one,  we  sometimes  hear  it  said,  who  was  not  qual- 
ified for  the  work  to  be  done,  and  hence,  if  a  man 
really  has  been  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  under- 
take any  task  whatever,  he  should  at  once  proceed  to 
the  discharge  of  his  duty  without  taking  counsel  with 
flesh  and  blood.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  divine 
rule,  and  in  many  conspicuous  instances  we  may  see 
how  God  often  calls  a  workman  long  before  he  is 
ready  for  his  work. 

The  youthful  David  was  anointed  many  years  be- 
fore he  was  prepared  to  wear  the  crown,  and  the 
newly  converted  Saul  of  Tarsus  received  his  extraor- 
dinary call  to  go  to  the  Gentiles  while  he  was  pray- 
ing in  the  temple,  long  before  he  was  prepared  to 
undertake  his  mission,  and  long  before  his  way  had 
been  prepared  for  him  in  the  Gentile  world.  The 
mission  fields  of  the  present  day  are  full  of  men  who 
have  had  a  similar  experience.  The  call  marks  a 
man  for  duty,  but  every  step  of  his  subsequent  course 
is  subject  to  successive  manifestations  of  God's  will, 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  29 

and  it  may  be  a  month,  a  year,  or  a  dozen  years  after 
his  receiving  the  summons  before  his  life  work  actually 
begins.  It  may  sometimes  happen,  and  it  no  doubt 
does  sometimes  happen,  that  immediate  service  is  ex- 
pected to  follow  such  a  call ;  but  this  is  by  no  means  a 
general  rule,  and  it  would  be  extremely  unwise,  and 
often  more  than  unwise,  to  assume  that  every  one 
upon  whom  God  has  put  his  seal  for  this  service  is 
thereby  immediately  and  fully  qualified  to  enter  upon 
such  a  responsible  work. 

The  question  of  natural  ability  is  hardly  to  be  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  this  equipment,  and  yet 
it  can  hardly  be  passed  by.  Many  inquiries  are  pre- 
sented in  regard  to  this  feature  of  the  subject,  and 
many  are  prone  on  the  one  hand  to  shrink  from  so 
great  a  work  because  conscious  of  their  own  mode- 
rate abilities,  while  others  are  tempted  rashly  to  push 
forward  under  the  mistaken  impression  that  an  in- 
ferior grade  of  talent  will  amply  suffice  for  any  kind 
of  work  among  the  ignorant  heathen.  As  a  general 
rule  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  very  best  men  and 
women  whom  the  Church  can  give  are  needed  in  the 
mission  field.  The  man  who  does  not  succeed  at  home 
could  not  possibly  succeed  abroad.  A  very  high 
order  of  talent  is  needed  even  among  the  most  igno- 
rant heathen  tribes,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose,  as 
is  usually  done,  that  exceptional  mental  ability  in  one 
or  more  given  directions  is  always  a  qualification  for 
a  successful  career  in  life.  The  most  able  men  are  by 
no  means  the  best  scholars  or  the  most  richly  endowed 
in  their  mental  gifts.  A  high  order  of  ability  in 
practical  life  is  that  which  enables  its  possessor  to  use 
all  the  powers  God  has  given  him.     Some  men  have 


30  Missionary  Addresses. 

this  gift  in  a  rare  degree.  A  man  with  a  few  hun- 
dred dollars  capital  once  said  to  me  that  he  could  get 
a  comfortable  living  out  of  his  money,  although  it 
seemed  such  an  insignificant  sum,  simply  by  turning 
it  over  once  every  week  or  ten  days.  The  capital  was 
small,  but  every  cent  of  it  was  constantly  in  use,  and  a 
hundred  dollars  actually  used  every  week  in  the  year 
is  worth  much  more  than  five  thousand  dollars  which 
is  put  to  use  perhaps  only  once  in  twelve  months.  It 
is  often  thus  with  men's  natural  talents.  Some  men 
of  very  moderate  ability  have  an  extraordinary  faculty 
for  using  every  shred  of  talent  God  has  given  them. 
It  is  sometimes  said  that  this  was  the  secret  of 
General  Grant's  great  success.  lie  was  not  a 
great  man  in  scholarship,  in  literature,  in  science, 
or  oratory,  and  even  in  his  own  chosen  profes- 
sion of  arms,  when  put  to  the  test  of  examination 
he  ranked  far  below  the  highest  of  his  class;  but 
when  in  active  service  he  knew  how  to  concentrate 
all  his  ability  upon  the  task  immediately  before  him, 
and  hence  his  uniform  success.  In  the  mission  field 
this  practical  ability  is  the  highest  order  of  talent,  and 
many  a  man,  who  perhaps  in  his  school  days  was  re- 
garded as  a  very  moderate  student,  takes  a  high  rank 
as  a  worker  because  he  has  no  talent  of  any  kind  care- 
fully folded  in  his  napkin  or  put  away  out  of  sight 
and  out  of  mind.  In  a  few  words,  it  may  be  said  that 
a  man  who  succeeds  at  home  will  succeed  abroad,  and 
men  who  are  not  in  demand  in  their  own  land  need 
not  be  sent  to  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  personal  equipment 
for  service  required  by  a  young  missionary,  I  am  in- 
clined to  place,  first  of  all,  a  clear  personal  experience 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  31 

of  the  salvation  which  lie  goes  forth  to  preach.  It 
may  seem  superfluous  to  even  mention  this,  but  both 
at  home  and  abroad  the  tendency  is  always  apt  to  be 
manifested  to  assume  too  much  in  reference  to  the 
piety  and  spiritual  knowledge  of  the  candidate  to  be 
sent  forth.  It  is  not  enough  that  a  young  man  should 
be  pious,  God-fearing,  conscientious  and  devoted,  but 
he  should  know  whereof  he  speaks,  and  go  to  the 
heathen  land  prepared  not  only  to  tell  of  the  Saviour 
who  once  rose  from  the  dead,  but  of  one  whom  he 
knows  as  a  personal  Saviour  and  friend.  He  should 
have  no  hazy  views  on  the  subject  of  an  inner  Chris- 
tian life,  but  should  know  what  is  meant  by  having 
Christ  revealed  in  the  soul,  by  having  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  the  light  of  the  temple  of  his  heart,  and  by  pos- 
sessing the  witness  of  his  adoption  into  the  family  of 
his  heavenly  Father. 

In  respect  to  their  personal  experience  of  these 
great  verities  missionaries  abroad  are,  perhaps,  very 
much  like  ministers  at  home.  Some  speak  positively 
and  clearly,  and  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
with  power  sent  down  from  heaven,  while  others 
speak  with  much  more  hesitation,  and  some  even  are 
almost  wholly  destitute  of  that  power  which  was  the 
universal  gift  to  preachers  in  the  apostolic  day.  I  do 
not  complain  of,  and  God  forbid  that  I  should  up- 
braid such  missionaries  for  their  shortcomings;  I 
merely  state  an  undoubted  fact.  Missionaries  abroad 
are  no  better  and  certainly  no  worse  than  their  breth- 
ren at  home;  and  you  all  know,  or  will  know  before 
many  years,  how  easy  it  is  for  men  to  gain  access  to 
Christian  pulpits  in  this  country,  who,  while  perhaps 
learned  in  theology,  scarcely  know  the  alphabet  of 


32  Missionary  Addresses. 

the  living  Christianity  which  they  are  expected  to 
preach.  Many  men  holding  unchallenged  positions 
in  the  pulpit  have  not  the  skill  of  a  Sunday-school 
child  in  leading  a  belated  soul  out  of  the  darkness  of 
this  wicked  world  and  into  the  sunlight  of  Christ's 
presence.  I  need  hardly  say  that  such  men  would  be 
perfectly  useless  in  trying  to  bring  the  benighted  hea- 
then to  a  knowledge  of  a  living  Saviour.  In  the 
mission  field  we  need  men  who  can  say  out  of  the 
experience  of  a  full  heart,  "  We  speak  that  which  we 
do  TcnowP 

Another  element  in  this  equipment  very  closely 
connected  with  the  personal  experience  of  which  I 
have  just  spoken,  is  what  may  be  called  the  art  of 
soul-winning.  The  missionary  should  be  a  soul- 
winner,  and  his  right  to  this  title  should  be  fully 
tested  before  he  is  sent  abroad.  The  great  work  of 
his  life  is  to  be  that  of  winning  souls  for  his  Master, 
and  if  he  does  not  learn  how  to  do  this  before  he 
leaves  his  native  land  it  is  by  no  means  certain  he 
will  acquire  the  divine  art  after  reaching  a  foreign 
field.  There  are  too  many  precious  interests  at  stake 
to  admit  of  any  experiment  in  such  case  as  this.  It 
is  always  easy  to  ascertain  whether  a  young  man  or 
woman  has  succeeded  in  this  definite  work  before  be- 
ing enlisted  for  missionary  service,  and  yet  as  a  sad 
matter  of  fact  I  am  bound  to  say  that  scores  and 
hundreds  of  missionaries  are  sent  abroad  without  such 
a  question  being  asked  in  reference  to  them.  I  once 
heard  a  young  lady  say  in  India  that  she  had  been 
asked  most  minute  questions  about  her  family  con- 
nections, their  standing  in  society,  her  education  and 
accomplishments,   her   religious  views    and  all  that 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  33 

pertained  to  a  responsible  standing  as  a  Christian  lady; 
but  not  a  single  inquiry  had  been  made  concerning 
her  knowledge  of  divine  things,  her  spiritual  state,  or 
her  success  as  a  Christian  worker.  This  lady  was  ex- 
ceedingly surprised  at  the  omission,  but  it  is  greatly 
to  be  feared  that  in  all  missionary  fields  of  the  world 
men  and  women  can  be  found  who,  up  to  the  time  of 
their  entering  the  missionary  service,  had  not  suc- 
ceeded in  leading  one  soul  to  Christ.  You  may  very 
naturally  ask  how  it  is  that  they  afterward  succeed 
in  doing  so.  I  simply  have  to  reply  that  some  of 
them  never  do  succeed.  As  before  remarked,  it  may 
generally  be  accepted  as  a  rule  that  those  who  do  not 
succeed  in  their  own  country  will  have  no  better  suc- 
cess in  a  strange  land ;  and  hence  my  counsel  to  you 
would  be  that,  whether  deciding  the  question  of  your 
own  personal  duty  in  after  years  or  when  advis- 
ing others,  always  to  apply  this  test  :  Can,  or  does,  the 
candidate  succeed  in  winning  souls  ?  If  not  it  will 
be  well  to  pause,  although  it  does  not  inevitably  fol- 
low that  this  divine  art  cannot  be  acquired.  He  who 
taught  people  to  "  catch  men  "  can  teach  any  of  you  to 
lead  souls  to  himself.  I  do  not  say  that  you  should 
dismiss  all  thoughts  of  missionary  service  if  you  have 
not  yet  learned  to  do  this  work,  but  I  certainly  do 
say  that  if  called  to  the  service  you  certainly  should 
learn  how  to  perform  it  before  leaving  your  native 
land. 

Another  part  of  the  equipment  is  the  anointing 
to  preach  which  God  bestows  on  those  set  apart  to 
do  this  work.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  those  who  go 
out  to  foreign  lands  to  preach  the  gospel.  Lav 
workers  may  go  for  other  departments  of  labor,  and 


31  Missionary  Addresses. 

ordained  ministers  may  also  go  for  special  branches 
of  service;  but,  whatever  exceptions  may  be  tolerated 
in  this  country,  I  should  certainly  say  to  every  young 
missionary  who  expects  to  be  a  preacher  to  the  hea- 
then that  unless  anointed  to  preach  he  should  not 
think  of  going  abroad.  What  I  mean  by  this  anoint- 
ing is  simply  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  enabling  him  to 
do  the  work  effectively.  I  have  no  time,  and  it  is  no 
part  of  my  present  task,  to  discuss  the  propriety,  the 
advantages,  or  the  disadvantages  cf  reading  sermons. 
I  merely  say  that  the  missionary  must  be  able  to  do 
something  more  than  this.  It  may  be  that  some  men 
are  anointed  to  read  the  gospel  here,  but  I  have  yet 
to  meet  with  any  minister  among  the  heathen  who  has 
succeeded  in  making  any  impression  whatever  by  the 
use  of  manuscript.  The  gift  of  preaching,  which 
practically  is  about  the  same  as  the  gift  of  prophecy 
spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament — I  mean  prophecy 
in  the  New  Testament  sense  of  the  word — is  an  abid- 
ing gift  of  the  present  dispensation.  It  is  put  by  the 
apostle  Paul  chief  of  all  the  special  gifts  which  the 
Spirit  bestows  upon  Christian  laborers.  We  are  to 
covet  this  gift,  seek  after  it  and,  above  all,  exercise  it. 
We  can  no  more  afford  to  let  it  die  out  of  the  Church 
than  we  can  afford  to  give  up  extemporaneous  prayer  ; 
and  the  Church  which  relinquishes  so  precious  a  gift 
deliberately  throws  away  her  most  effective  weapon 
of  warfare,  and  of  necessity  ceases  to  be  an  aggressive 
organization.  I  say  it,  then,  without  hesitation,  that 
we  cannot  do  without  anointed  preachers  in  the  mis- 
sion field.  We  do  not  want  men  who  cannot  preach  ; 
who  cannot  preach  as  the  Spirit  gives  them  utterance  ; 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  35 

and  a  candidate  who  has  not  received  such  an  anoint- 
ing should  wait  at  the  mercy-seat  until  the  Spirit 
comes  upon  him — until,  like  his  Master,  he  can  stand 
before  the  people  who  wait  for  the  words  from  his  lips, 
and  say,  "  The  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach." 

Next  to  these  more  spiritual  qualifications  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  missionary's  equipment  consists 
in  the  education  which  he  should  receive  before  enter- 
ing upon  his  work.  I  assume  at  once  that  there  should 
be  an  education  in  every  case.  If  not  acquired  before 
the  call  is  received,  the  young  missionary  should  at 
once  make  it  a  leading  object  to  secure  the  best  pos- 
sible training  within  his  reach.  It  is  a  bad  sign,  I 
think  I  may  say  a  very  bad  sign,  in  a  young  man, 
for  him  to  say  that  he  has  no  time  to  acquire  an  educa- 
tion, or  that  he  can  do  without  one,  or  that  he  would 
backslide  if  he  turned  aside  to  get  one — or  to  make  any 
other  excuse  for  neglecting  this  duty.  I  have  marked 
such  young  men  for  many  years,  and  have  been  sur- 
prised and  often  startled  to  notice  how  seldom  they 
attain  success  and  how  frequently  they  sink  out  of 
sight  in  utter  failure.  But,  while  attaching  so  much 
importance  to  an  intellectual  training,  we  must  always 
remember  that  the  whole  system  of  education  in  the 
case  of  missionary  workers  must  be  extremely  flex- 
ible, so  as  to  adapt  it  to  the  peculiar  circumstances 
and  abilities  of  each  individual.  Much  will  depend 
upon  the  age  of  the  candidate,  upon  his  ability  to 
pursue  a  certain  line  of  study,  upon  his  previous  ex- 
perience and  proposed  field  of  labor.  In  the  main, 
I  should  say  that  a  thorough  training  in  what  is  called 
an  English  education  is  worth  more  than  a  superficial 
course  in  the  classics.     I  have  often  had  occasion  to 


36  Missionary  Addresses. 

regret,  when  watching  the  course  of  young  American 
missionaries  in  India,  that  so  little  attention  is  given 
in  this  country  to  thoroughness  in  the  elementary 
branches  of  study.  It  is  better  not  to  know  the 
Greek  alphabet,  and  to  be  wholly  ignorant  of  Hebrew 
and  Latin,  than  to  have  a  smattering  of  these  and  yet 
not  to  be  able  to  write  a  correct  English  letter,  or  not 
to  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  branches  usually 
taught  in  a  common  school.  But  when  a  thorough 
foundation  in  the  elementary  English  branches  is 
secured,  then,  if  the  candidate  is  not  too  old,  let  him 
by  all  means  pursue  a  regular  college  course ;  let  him 
aim  to  become  a  scholar  and  take  time  to  accomplish 
the  undertaking.  In  all  foreign  missions  we  greatly 
need  not  only  men  of  fair  education,  but  of  real  schol- 
arship. I  need  hardly  remind  you  that  such  men  are 
rare  every-where.  They  are,  however,  needed  every- 
where, and  in  no  part  of  the  vineyard  of  our  Master 
is  the  demand  more  urgent  than  in  the  mission  field. 
In  every  one  of  these  fields  a  literature  must  be  cre- 
ated, a  theological  course  of  study  framed,  institu- 
tions of  learning  must  be  founded,  and  young  men 
and  women  prepared  for  the  positions  which  the 
Church  of  the  next  generation  will  offer  them.  For 
such  work  superficial  scholarship  is  of  little  use,  and 
hence  I  always  look  with  peculiar  interest  upon  any 
young  man  enlisted  for  the  foreign  field  who  gives 
promise  of  eminence  in  the  field  of  scholarship. 

But  while  pressing  the  importance  of  securing  this 
higher  standard  of  Christian  scholarship,  let  no  one 
suppose  that  a  young  man  of  much  more  limited  abil- 
ities cannot  usefully  be  employed  in  the  mission  field. 
I  have  little  fear  of  the  success  of  any  young  man 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  37 

of  average  ability  who  lias  secured  a  thorough  English 
education,  and  who  has  industrious  habits  of  both 
study  and  labor,  provided  he  throws  his  whole  soul 
into  the  work  and  engages  in  the  study  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people  to  whom  he  goes  with  the  de- 
termination to  master  it.  It  would  be  better  if  he 
could  pursue  a  more  extensive  course  before  going 
abroad,  but  if  this  is  impossible  he  need  not  despair. 
In  every  part  of  the  foreign  field  men  may  be  found 
succeeding  well  as  missionaries  who  never  had  the 
advantage  of  a  thorough  college  training.  I  do  not 
counsel  any  one  to  throw  aside  such  a  training  if  he 
can  possibly  secure  it,  but  where  this  is  impossible 
let  no  young  man,  otherwise  qualified,  ever  despair  of 
succeeding  as  a  missionary  ;  he  can  in  a  large  measure 
compensate  for  the  absence  of  a  liberal  education  by 
diligence  in  study  while  in  the  mission  field. 

The  young  missionary  should  have  a  clear  and  well- 
grounded  theology  before  going  abroad.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  should  be  thoroughly  drilled  in  what  is 
called  a  theological  course,  so  much  as  that  his  views 
of  vital  theological  truth  should  be  clear  and  settled. 
The  Christian  Church  of  America  cannot  afford  to 
export  doubt  or  even  religious  speculation  to  foreign 
fields.  The  people  of  India,  and  I  may  add  of  other 
lands,  are  abundantly  able  to  provide  all  the  doubts 
and  all  the  unprofitable  speculations  which  any 
Church  will  care  to  contend  with,  and  one  important 
qualification  of  the  missionary  should  be  a  positive 
faith  as  opposed  to  doubt,  and  a  clear  system  of  liv- 
ing truth  as  opposed  to  profitless  speculations.  He 
may  go  on  throughout  his  entire  lifetime,  as,  in- 
deed, every    successful  worker  should,  adding  to  his 


38  Missionary  Addresses. 

store  of  truth,  drawing  more  and  more  from  the  rich 
treasury  of  God's  word,  but  what  I  mean  is  that  he 
should  be  grounded  in  those  truths  which  are  vital  to 
his  Christian  life  and  his  Christian  usefulness.  We 
are  all  learners,  or  at  least  we  should  be  learners 
until  our  dying  day.  All  Christians  are  disciples,  or 
learners,  and  he  who  would  impart  valuable  teaching 
to  others  must  constantly  be  adding  to  his  store  of 
knowledge,  else  he  will  be  utterly  unqualified  for  his 
work.  The  neglect  to  do  so  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  so  many  ministers  in  Christian  lands  pass  the 
zenith  of  their  usefulness  lon^  before  reaching:  the 
noonday  of  an  ordinary  life. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  every  young  mission- 
ary should  acquire  settled  habits  of  study.  The  work 
which  a  college  training  really  does  for  an  ordinary 
student  is  not  so  much  that  of  imparting  to  him 
valuable  knowledge,  or  training  him  for  important 
work,  as  of  teaching  him  how  to  study.  Not  very 
many  people  have  acquired  this  habit,  and  among 
Christian  ministers  it  is  an  accomplishment  altogether 
too  rare.  In  the  mission  field  a  successful  worker 
cannot  dispense  with  this  qualification.  The  mis- 
sionary is,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  must  be,  a 
student  all  his  life.  When  asked  how  long  it  takes  a 
missionary  to  master  a  native  language  of  India,  I 
sometimes  reply  thirty  or  forty  years ;  in  other  words, 
he  must  study  it  all  his  days.  He  may  be  able  to 
preach,  very  possibly,  in  twelve  months  or  a  little 
more,  but  he  preaches  with  a  limited  vocabulary,  a  bad 
idiom,  a  false  accent,  and  consequently  with  little 
force.  He  speaks  very  much  better  at  the  end  of  five 
years,  but  probably  even  then  feels  the  necessity  for 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  30 

further  study  more  keenly  than  he  did  at  the  end  of 
his  first  year.  And  if  you  were  to  go  to  the  mission 
fields  of  the  East  to-day  you  would,  probably,  find 
most  of  the  veterans  still  engaged  in  the  close  study 
of  the  language,  or  languages,  with  which  they  are 
supposed  to  be  familiar.  Then,  aside  from  the  study 
of  language,  nearly  every  missionary  has  more  or  less 
literary  work  to  do,  or  is,  perhaps,  engaged  in  educa- 
tional work,  which  requires  as  close  application  as  a 
similar  work  in  an  American  school  or  college.  I 
should  hesitate  a  long  while  before  advising  any 
young  man  to  venture  into  a  mission  field  without 
acquiring  this  most  important  and  indispensable  habit 
of  close,  patient  and  successful  study.  I  could  pro- 
long these  remarks  almost  indefinitely,  but  suffice  it  to 
say  that  whatever  preparation  is  needful  in  America 
for  a  successful  career  is  doubly  important  in  the  mis- 
sion field. 

I  cannot  sufficiently  deprecate  the  unwise  haste,  I 
think  I  may  say  the  culpable  ambition,  of  many 
young  preachers,  both  at  home  and  in  the  mission 
fields.  A  candidate  for  service  in  our  Indian  mission 
said  to  me  not  very  long  since,  that  he  could  not  con- 
sent to  devote  two  or  three  of  the  best  years  of  his 
life  to  the  acquisition  of  a  new  language,  and  hence 
he  thought  it  the  part  of  wisdom  to  abandon  all 
thought  of  entering  the  missionary  service.  Three 
years  may  seem  like  a  long  time  to  wait  before  enter- 
ing upon  the  busy  stage  of  active  life,  but  a  man  who 
can  see  no  farther  than  two  or  three  years  ahead  is 
not  one  of  those  who  is  destined  to  succeed  in  life. 
I  have  often  heard  young  men  appealing  to  the 
examples  of  the  first  Napoleon  and  the  younger  Pitt, 


40  Missionary  Addresses. 

one  of  whom  was  Dictator  of  Europe  at  the  age 
of  twenty-seven,  and  the  other  Prime  Minister  of 
England  at  twenty-three.  But  aside  from  the  conceit 
implied  in  such  a  reference — the  impatient  young  man 
apparently  assuming  that  he  has  the  brains  of  these 
colossal  giants  of  a  stormy  age — it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  both  of  these  great  men  were  really  fail- 
ures. Both  died  prematurely,  both  failed  to  attain 
the  real  eminence  which  Providence  had  evidently 
intended  for  them,  and  both  should  be  regarded  by 
the  young  men  of  to-day  as  conspicuous  warnings 
rather  than  illustrious  models. 

The  young  Christian  has  a  far  nobler  example  set 
before  him  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  greatest  men  of 
any  age  ;  I  mean  the  renowned  law-giver  of  the  Jews. 
Moses  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  all 
history.  His  career  was  extraordinary,  from  his  first 
appearance  on  the  stage  of  history  to  his  latest  hour. 
He  was  a  servant  of  God,  a  leader  of  the  people,  an 
illustrious  legislator,  an  inspired  prophet,  and  a  man 
of  undoubted  genius  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 
When  forty  years  of  age  he  was  the  most  gifted  man 
then  living  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  yet,  in  order 
to  prepare  him  more  thoroughly  for  the  greater  work 
for  which  he  had  chosen  him,  God  drew  him  aside 
from  the  influences  of  the  world  and  subjected  him 
to  a  discipline  of  forty  years  before  his  real  life- 
work  began.  I  never  talk  with  ambitious  youths  who 
fancy  they  are  throwing  away  valuable  time,  or  neg- 
lecting golden  opportunities,  if  they  pause  a  year  or 
two  to  prepare  themselves  before  entering  upon  the 
great  work  of  preaching  the  gospel,  without  thinking 
of  the  extraordinary  contrast  between  these  impatient 


The  Young  Missionary's  Call.  41 

tyros  and  the  magnificent  man  of  God  who  pursued 
his  way  among  the  bleak,  barren  crags  of  the  Arabian 
mountains  for  forty  long  years  before  he  was  pre- 
pared to  stand  face  to  face  with  Him  who  dwelt  in  the 
bush,  who  spoke  from  out  the  living  flame,  and  who 
sent  his  servant  forth  upon  perhaps  the  greatest  career 
which  has  ever  been  assigned  to  any  mortal. 

It  is  said  that  it  is  an  essential  feature  of  true 
genius  that  it  is  never  in  a  hurry.  I  beg  of  you,  my 
young  brethren,  to  be  on  your  guard  against  impa- 
tience as  against  sin  itself.  Good  men,  like  great  men, 
can  afford,  if  need  be,  to  move  slowly  in  our  day,  as 
in  the  age  of  Moses.  Men  and  women  are  still  some- 
times subjected  to  long  years  of  training  before  their 
real  life-work  begins.  If  you  set  yourselves  apart 
unreservedly  for  God,  if  you  allow  him  to  fashion 
and  mold  you  according  to  his  will  and  prepare  you 
for  any  service  which  may  be  pleasing  to  him,  you 
may  forever  dismiss  from  your  minds  the  misgiving 
which  disturbs  the  peace  of  so  many  ministers,  that 
perhaps  soon  after  passing  your  fiftieth  year  you  will 
cease  to  be  in  demand  for  service  in  the  pulpit.  If 
you  are  fully  equipped  according  to  the  mind,  not  of 
the  conventional  minister,  but  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
if  you  go  on  growing  in  knowledge  and  grace,  mak- 
ing the  first  twenty  or  thirty  or  forty  years  of  your 
service  but  a  part  of  your  preparatory  training,  you 
will  in  all  probability  do  your  best  work  after  you  are 
sixty  years  of  age.  One  year  in  our  last  decade  ought 
to  be  equal  in  its  results  to  five,  or  possibly  ten,  years 
in  our  first.  In  any  case,  remember  that  God  will 
give  you  abundant  time  to  do  all  the  work  which  he 
has  commissioned  you  to  accomplish. 


42  Missionary  Addresses. 

My  young  brethren,  you  may  not  all  become  mis- 
sionaries, but  you  may,  one  and  all,  become  the  hon- 
ored subjects  of  a  divine  call.  Let  your  life-work 
be  chosen  for  you  by  Him  who  sitteth  between  the 
cherubim.  It  matters  but  little  what  that  work  may 
be,  but  it  matters  every  thing  that  it  be  given  you  of 
God.  A  clear,  distinct,  unmistakable  call  from  God 
will  strengthen  you  for  every  step  of  life's  journey. 
Wait  on  God  in  perfect  submission  to  his  will,  with 
perfect  indifference  to  personal  interests,  and  you 
will  in  due  time  hear  the  voice,  or  see  the  token,  or 
feel  the  touch,  which  will  be  to  you  like  a  pillar  of 
fire  rising  out  of  a  pathless  desert.  Be  willing  and 
ready,  and  even  eager,  for  any  service.  Let  the  lan- 
guage of  your  hearts  be : 

"Is  there  some  desert,  or  some  pathless  sea, 
Where  thou,  great  God  of  angels,  wilt  send  me  ? 
Show  me  the  desert,  Father,  or  the  sea; 
Is  it  thine  enterprise?    Great  God,  send  me. 
And  though  this  body  lie  where  ocean  rolls, 
Father,  write  me  among  all  faithful  souls." 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  43 


MISSIONARY  METHODS  AND  POLICIES. 

SOME  twenty  odd  years  ago  I  called  on  a  Chicago 
pastor  and  found  him  in  his  study  ready  to  receive 
me,  and  apparently  prepared  to  give  me  a  good  deal  of 
instruction  in  reference  to  missionary  work.  I  cannot 
now  remember  all  he  said,  but  one  question  which  he 
put  to  me  with  singular  confidence  was  this  :  "  How 
do  you  account  for  the  failure  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sions?" Without  heeding  my  remark,  that  I  was  not 
aware  of  any  such  failure,  he  proceeded  to  say  that  he 
had  given  much  earnest  thought  to  the  subject  and 
was  trying  to  devise  some  new  plan  or  method  by 
which  this  work  might  be  made  successful.  I  have 
since  found  many  people  who,  like  this  pastor,  fan- 
cied that  success  on  a  large  scale  in  the  mission  field 
was  to  be  attained  by  the  discovery  of  some  new 
method  of  labor ;  and  in  the  current  missionary  liter- 
ature of  the  day  it  is  easy  to  discover  the  presence  of 
this  same  notion.  It  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted 
that  all  the  missionaries  who  have  ever  gone  abroad 
have  worked  in  precisely  the  same  way,  have  adopted 
the  same  methods,  have  tried  no  experiments,  have 
learned  nothing  by  experience  and,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  rather  dull  and  plodding  workmen.  There 
could  be  no  greater  mistake  than  to  form  any  such 
impression.  In  fact,  so  many  experiments  have  been 
tried,  so  many  different  methods  adopted,  that  I 
sometimes  doubt  whether  any  more  new  plans  can  be 
4 


41  Missionary  Addresses. 

devised  for  the  prosecution  of  the  work.  But  whether 
successful  or  not  in  lighting  upon  new  discoveries, 
enterprising  and  earnest  men  may  be  expected  to 
persevere  in  the  effort  to  improve  upon  former 
methods,  and  hence  when  we  get  within  missionary 
circles  we  find  questions  of  policy  and  method  en- 
grossing more  or  less  attention  every- where.  Both  in 
the  mission  field  and  at  home  a  deep  interest  is  felt 
in  the  general  subject,  and  it  is  well  wrorthy  of  atten- 
tion for  a  brief  hour  this  evening. 

If  you  were  to  accompany  me  to  India,  we  would 
land  at  Bombay  and  immediately  come  in  contact 
with  missionaries  pursuing  half  a  dozen  different 
methods  of  labor,  and  yet  all  standing  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  all  working  for  the  same  Master,  and  work- 
ing to  attain  the  same  result.  In  every  part  of  India 
similar  spectacles  wrould  meet  us ;  and  if  we  pursued 
our  journey  around  the  coast  to  China  and  Japan,  in 
every  field  we  would  find  earnest  men  and  women 
using  methods  both  old  and  new,  profiting  by  their 
own  experiences  and  by  those  of  former  generations, 
and  striving  in  any  way  and  every  way  to  help  for- 
ward the  great  work  in  which  they  are  engaged. 
Time  will  not  permit  me  to  speak  of  all  these  differ- 
ent methods  of  missionary  labor,  but  a  few  of  the 
more  important  may  be  briefly  noticed. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  generally  conceded  in  all 
mission  fields  that  the  primary  work  of  the  mission- 
ary is  that  of  preaching.  While  some  personally  feel 
themselves  called  to  other  spheres  of  labor,  all  evan- 
gelical missionaries  are  prepared  to  admit  that  the 
honor  of  precedence  over  every  other  form  of  labor 
must  be  given  to  the  work  of  preaching.     And  yet  it 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  45 

is  surprising  to  find  how  large  a  proportion  of  mis- 
sionaries in  most  fields  are  absorbed  more  or  less  in 
other  forms  of  labor.  It  is  felt  by  many  that  there  is 
great  danger,  as  cares  and  duties  of  various  kinds 
multiply,  that  most  missionaries  will  be  drawn  away 
in  a  large  measure  from  this  most  important  part  of 
mission  work.  The  fact  that  such  danger  exists  only 
illustrates  what  I  have  j  ust  said,  that  very  many  forms 
of  labor  and  many  methods  are  employed  in  connec- 
tion with  the  work.  Some  of  these  are  wise  and 
judicious,  some  are  unwise  in  a  measure,  and  some 
are  questionable  if  not  bad. 

Of  this  last  class  I  may  mention  what  will  un- 
doubtedly surprise  you  very  much :  the  sacerdotal 
theory  that  the  true  way  to  Christianize  a  people  is 
not  to  begin  by  preaching  the  Gospel,  but  by  first 
bringing  them  within  the  pale  of  the  Church.  It  is 
believed,  as  you  perhaps  know,  by  those  holding  sacer- 
dotal views,  such  as  Roman  Catholics,  and  that  section 
of  the  Anglican  Church  known  as  Ritualists,  that  the 
grace  of  God  flows  to  the  heart  of  the  believer  through 
the  ordinances  of  the  Church.  The  Church  is  sup- 
posed to  be  literally  the  body  of  Christ,  and  hence 
the  way  to  bring  the  heathen  to  Christ  is  to  unite 
them  to  the  Church,  when  they  become  literally  mem- 
bers of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  then  in 
a  position  to  receive  grace  through  the  medium  of 
the  Christian  ordinances.  The  rite  of  baptism  unites 
them  to  the  Church,  and  consequently  to  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  thus  by  a  logical  process  this  extraordi- 
nary method  of  conversion  is  carried  on  by  men  of 
great  earnestness  and  intelligence.  The  sacerdotal 
missionary  is  convinced  that  he  is  making  Christian 


46  Missionary  Addresses. 

converts  when  he  gathers  in  whole  villages  of  Hindus 
and  makes  them  what  we  call  nominal  Christians. 
There  are  missionaries,  and  many  of  them,  too,  who 
adopt  this  method  in  India.  Incredible  as  it  may 
seem  to  you,  the  present  Bishop  of  Bombay,  a  learned 
and  able  man,  at  the  very  threshold  of  his  career  pro- 
claimed in  unmistakable  terms  this  sacerdotal  method 
in  opposition  to  the  old-time  plan  of  relying  upon  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Missions  con- 
ducted on  this  plan  are  not  conspicuously  successful. 
In  Burmah  and  various  parts  of  India  such  mission- 
aries have  succeeded  by  taking  advantage  of  disputes 
among  existing  converts  to  draw  off  considerable  num- 
bers and  enroll  them  as  members  of  their  own  flock; 
but  in  dealing  with  what  we  in  India  sometimes 
call  the  "raw  heathen,"  they  seem  to  have  little  or  no 
success.  There  is  nothing  in  the  plan  to  commend  it 
to  non-christian  people,  and  certainly  nothing  to  im- 
press their  minds  and  hearts. 

Just  here  let  me  refer  to  a  very  common  and 
wholly  mistaken  notion  which  I  often  meet  with  even 
in  India  with  reference  to  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
aries. It  is  often  said  of  them  that  they  conform  to 
the  habits  of  the  people  to  whom  they  go;  that  they 
adopt  the  same  mode  of  life,  and  even  so  far  adapt 
their  religious  usages  to  the  customs  of  the  people  as 
to  make  the  process  of  conversion  comparatively  easy. 
This  methjod  of  work  we  are  constantly  told  accounts 
for  their  extraordinary  success,  and  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries are  often  exhorted  to  imitate  them  as  far  as 
they  can  do  so  without  compromising  themselves. 
So  far  as  India  is  concerned,  I  have  only  to  say  that 
the  whole  story  is  almost  a  complete  myth.     In  very 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  47 

early  times  the  policy  of  appropriating  heathen  festi- 
vals and  idolatrous  usages  by  simply  introducing  a 
few  changes  and  substituting  Christian  names  for 
heathen  terms  was  undoubtedly  adopted.  But  I  am 
not  aware  that  any  such  method  prevails  at  the  pres- 
ent day.  In  those  regions  where  this  fatal  compro. 
mise  was  made  the  so-called  Catholic  Christians  can 
now  hardly  be  distinguished  from  their  heathen 
neighbors,  and  it  is  simply  nonsense  to  talk  about  the 
success  of  this  dishonest  policy  which  is  sometimes 
tacitly  applauded  even  by  Protestants.  But  as  I  have 
just  remarked  about  the  sacerdotal  missionaries  of  the 
Anglican  communion  I  may  say  also  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  with  whom  I  have  come  in  contact :  they 
are  not  succeeding  as  well  as  Protestants ;  they  are 
making  fewer  converts,  and  they  are  wielding  le^s 
influence  among  the  people.  As  a  class  they  are  de- 
voted, self-denying  men ;  but  after  spending  twenty- 
seven  years  in  India,  during  which  time  I  came  in 
contact  with  missionaries  of  almost  every  society  in 
the  empire,  I  must  report  that  I  never  once  met  with 
a  Roman  Catholic  missionary  who  had  succeeded  con- 
spicuously in  making  converts.  The  Protestants  sur- 
pass them  in  this  respect  in  every  part  of  India,  how- 
ever different  it  may  be  in  China  or  elsewhere. 

Just  here  I  may  as  well  notice  in  its  general  bear- 
ing the  method  which  has  so  often  been  commended 
to  missionaries,  and  which  in  many  countries  has  been 
faithfully  tried,  to  adopt  the  dress,  food  and  general 
style  of  living  of  the  people  to  whom  the  missionary 
goes.  In  some  countries  the  rule  is  a  good  one  and 
can  be  practically  carried  out,  while  in  others  it  is 
both  unwise   and    impracticable.     In  China,  for  in- 


48  Missionary  Addresses. 

stance,  the  missionary  who  goes  into  the  interior 
makes  himself  much  less  conspicuous  by  adopting  the 
Chinese  dress,  and  thereby  avoids  a  great  deal  of 
annoyance.  He  also  gains  more  ready  access  to  the 
people,  and  no  doubt  reduces  the  cost  both  of  travel- 
ing and  ordinary  living.  In  almost  all  parts  of  India 
the  circumstances  of  the  missionary  are  entirely  dif- 
ferent. The  people  every-where  are  familiar  with 
the  sight  of  the  English,  and  a  foreigner  coming  to 
them  in  their  own  dress  would  attract  the  attention 
which  in  China  the  missionary  is  happy  to  escape. 
In  short,  the  rule  of  good  taste  and  good  sense  Which 
prevails  in  all  countries  comes  in  force  here.  Sensible 
people  every-where  prefer  to  dress  in  such  a  way  as 
to  attract  the  least  possible  attention.  In  a  country 
like  India,  American  and  European  missionaries  will 
attract  less  attention  if  they  appear  in  their  own  dress 
than  if  they  put  on  what  seems  to  the  mass  of  the 
people  a  disguise.  Their  high  motives  will  by  no 
means  be  generally  appreciated.  In  the  remote  north- 
west frontier,  where  English  people  are  very  seldom 
seen,  a  number  of  missionaries  have  for  years  con- 
formed more  or  less  to  the  native  style  of  dress,  and 
with  satisfactory  results.  The  members  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army  have  been  conspicuous  in  India  for  their 
attempts  to  adapt  their  uniform  to  the  native  style 
and  native  taste,  but  after  a  year  or  two  of  experi- 
ment most  of  their  leaders  dropped  this  and  put  on 
the  dress  of  Indian  devotees.  The  result  was  that 
they  were  regarded  by  the  mass  of  the  people  simply 
as  an  order  of  Christian  devotees ;  and  while  I  do  not 
wish  to  speak  too  positively  of  the  experiment  made 
by  these  devoted  men  and  women,  yet  my  impression 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  49 

is  that  they  lost  rather  than  gained  by  this  extreme 
attempt  to  lay  aside  every  vestige  of  English  style 
and  to  become  more  Indian  even  than  most  of  the 
Indians  themselves.  My  friend,  General  Haig,  of 
London,  who  spent  many  years  of  a  very  active  life  in 
India,  and  who  was  more  closely  identified  with  mis- 
sionary work  while  there  than  most  of  his  country- 
men, has  recently  proposed  a  scheme  to  send  mission- 
aries to  the  Bedouin  tribes  of  Arabia  in  their  own 
deserts,  and  in  order  to  reach  them  he  would  have  the 
missionaries  not  only  adopt  the  Arabian  style  of  dress 
but  accept  also  the  common  lot  of  the  tribes  to  which 
they  are  respectively  attached.  He  would  have  the 
missionaries  accompany  them  in  all  their  wanderings, 
wear  the  same  clothing,  eat  the  same  food,  and  in 
every  respect  become  like  them  in  order  to  make 
their  stay  among  them  possible.  And  yet  General 
Haig,  while  proposing  this  course  to  a  missionary 
going  to  the  Bedouin  tribes,  does  not  for  a  moment 
advise  missionaries  going  to  India  to  adopt  the  Indian 
style  of  dress  or  mode  of  life.  I  mention  this  simply 
as  an  illustration  of  the  general  rule  which  must  be 
followed. 

We  must  remember,  too,  that  the  missionary  who 
adopts  entirely  the  style  of  living  of  the  people  to 
whom  he  goes  must,  in  many  cases,  expose  himself  to 
hardships  which  comparatively  few  Europeans  can 
safely  endure.  In  some  countries  the  experiment 
would  be  barely  feasible,  but  in  most  parts  of  the 
tropical  world,  including  nearly  all  of  Africa,  nearly 
all  of  India,  the  islands  of  the  great  Indian  Archi- 
pelago and  more  than  half  of  China,  the  mission- 
ary, especially  if  he  has  a  family,  would  be  subject  to 


r>()  Missionary  Addresses. 

exposures  which  it  would  be  almost  criminal  for  him 
to  encounter,  living  as  he  would  in  a  small  un venti- 
lated hut,  wearing  the  most  scanty  clothing,  and  eating 
the  coarse  food  of  the  common  people.  The  experi- 
ment has  been  tried  but  too  often,  and  I  think  I  may 
say  that  it  has  never  been  tried  successfully.  I  cannot 
recall  a  single  instance  where  such  a  style  of  living 
has  been  persisted  in  after  more  than  a  very  few  years 
of  honest  trial. 

The  great  mistake  into  which  so  many  fall  in  con- 
sidering this  question  is  that  of  confounding  social 
differences  with  moral  distinctions.  Some  twenty-one 
years  ago  I  Uiet  for  the  first  time  the  lie  v.  George 
Bo  wen,  of  Bombay,  well  known  throughout  India  as 
one  of  the  most  devoted  and  self-sacrilicing  mission- 
aries in  the  empire,  lie  had  received  a  finished  ed- 
ucation, had  traveled  and  studied  in  Europe,  was 
familiar  with  French,  Spanish  and  Italian  literature, 
and  had  left  a  luxurious  home  in  ^Tew  York  to  devote 
himself  to  the  work  of  India's  regeneration.  In  order  to 
get  nearer  to  the  people  and  to  convince  them  that  he 
had  no  sordid  motives  in  coming  to  them,  he  relin- 
quished his  salary  as  a  missionary,  gave  up  all  the 
ordinary  comforts  of  his  home  and  lived  in  a  small 
hired  room  in  the  native  quarter  of  the  city.  He  re- 
duced his  expenses  so  low  that  his  entire  annual  out- 
lay did  not  probably  exceed  $150,  and  his  simple 
habits  and  frugal  manner  of  living  were  in  most 
striking  contrast  with  the  kind  of  life  which  the  na- 
tives saw  in  the  European  quarter  of  Bombay.  When 
I  first  met  him  he  had  been  pursuing  this  course  for 
a  dozen  or  more  years,  and  I  lost  no  time  in  asking 
how   far  the  experiment  which  he   was  trying  had 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  51 

proved  successful.  His  reply,  which  I  have  never 
forgotten,  was  substantially  this  :  "  I  have  not  been 
wholly  disappointed,  but  I  have  not  been  successful 
enough  to  make  me  feel  like  advising  any  one  else 
to  follow  my  example.  And  yet  I  have  not  so  com- 
pletely failed  as  to  make  me  regret  the  course  which 
I  have  pursued.  I  have  discovered  that  the  gulf 
which  separates  the  people  of  this  country  from  us  is 
not  a  social  one  at  all ;  it  is  simply  the  great  impass- 
able gulf  which  separates  between  the  religion  of 
Christ  and  an  unbelieving  world."  In  this  reply  we 
have  the  key  to  this  whole  problem ;  this  great  gulf 
cannot  be  bridged  over,  much  less  filled  up.  There 
may  be  reasons,  and  there  are  no  doubt  many  reasons, 
to  justify  missionaries  in  adopting  a  simple  mode  of 
living,  but  less  depends  upon  any  peculiar  method 
adopted  than  upon  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  prosecuted. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  all  lands  God  often  blesses 
the  blundering  efforts  of  faithful  but  mistaken  Chris- 
tians, and  we  may  safely  assume  that  he  will  bless 
all  efforts  in  the  mission  field  if  the  work  is  done 
in  the  right  spirit;  but  it  will  not  do  to  assume, 
even  for  a  moment,  that  there  is  any  royal  road  to 
success,  or  any  secret  art  by  which  success  may  be 
achieved,  or  that  any  one  man's  success  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  proof  that  his  method  is  necessarily  the  light 
one  and  all  others  wrong. 

But  it  is  time  to  consider  some  broader  questions 
of  method  and  policy  than  these  minor  topics.  So 
far  as  missionary  methods  are  concerned  the  greatest 
battle  that  has  yet  been  fought  in  India  has  been  over 
the  question  of  education.  Up  to  the  time  of  Dr. 
Duff  but  little  prominence  had  been  given  to  schools 


52  Missionary  Addresses. 

as  an  evangelizing  agency.  When,  however,  that 
great  leader  arrived  in  India  he  at  once  formulated  a 
new  policy  which  has  left  its  impression  not  only 
upon  missionary  work,  but  upon  the  whole  educational 
movement  in  the  empire.  Without  depreciating 
preaching,  and  without  opposing  any  other  agency,  Dr. 
Duff  and  his  society  adopted  a  plan  of  establishing  ed- 
ucational institutions  of  a  high  grade,  hoping  so  to 
impress  the  minds  of  the  rising  generation  of  India  as 
to  prepare  them  for  the  reception  of  Christian  truth, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  win  converts  to  Christianity 
who  would  be  able  to  assume  a  leading  position  in 
society.  In  Calcutta,  Bombay,  and  Madras,  these 
Scotch  missionaries  founded  successful  Christian  col- 
leges, and  very  soon  their  course  began  to  attract  wide 
attention  not  only  in  India,  but  also  in  Europe  and 
America.  Their  policy  has  been  warmly  attacked 
from  time  to  time,  and  while  as  warmly  defended  it 
has  sometimes  happened  that  education  has  been  put 
forward  as  a  more  successful  agency  than  preaching. 
This  opinion  now  prevails  to  some  extent  both  in 
Europe  and  this  country.  The  warmth  of  the  battle 
in  India  has  in  a  large  measure  abated,  but  the  ques- 
tion still  remains,  and  the  young  missionary  is  often 
called  upon  to  decide,  when  he  chooses  his  life-work, 
whether  he  will  occupy  a  professors  chair  or  become 
a  preacher  of  the  word.  Beyond  all  question  the  right 
view  to  take  of  this  whole  subject  is  that  of  giving 
every  man  the  work  to  which  he  is  called,  and  every 
work  the  position  which  the  providence  of  God  indi- 
cates for  it.  Preaching  can  never  be  dispensed  with 
and  can  never  be  made  secondary  to  any  other  work ; 
but  still,  conceding  this,  it   must  also  be  .accepted  as 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  53 

equally  true  that  Christian  education  cannot  be  dis- 
pensed with  in  any  mission  field.  In  some  countries 
for  a  generation  or  two  this  education  may  be  of  an 
elementary  character,  but  in  others  it  will,  and  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  must,  aim  much  higher.  India,  for 
instance,  is  a  land  of  colleges.  You  have  very  few 
colleges  in  America  that  will,  in  point  of  attendance, 
compare  with  some  of  ours  in  Calcutta.  In  the  in- 
stitution founded  by  Dr.  Duff  when  he  first  wTent  to 
India  I  have  with  my  own  eyes  seen  1,400  students, 
and  in  the  second  institution,  founded  by  him  at  the 
time  of  the  Free  Church  secession,  I  have  seen  a  thou- 
sand or  more. 

There  are  four  or  five  colleges  in  Calcutta  having  over 
a  thousand  students  each.  In  the  face  of  such  educa- 
tional activity  as  this,  missionaries  would  be  blind  and 
deaf  to  all  the  indications  of  God's  providence,  if  they 
did  not  throw  themselves  heartily  into  the  work  of  edu- 
cation. The  question  in  all  its  bearings  is  too  broad  a 
one  for  me  to  discuss  at  the  present.  Perhaps  I 
ought  to  say  before  dismissing  the  subject  that  there 
is  danger,  and  the  danger  is  fully  recognized  in  India 
itself,  that  in  the  vigorous  competition  which  these 
colleges  encounter  the  instructors  may  be  tempted  to 
forget  that  they  are  there  primarily  as  Christian  teach- 
ers, working  in  Christian  colleges,  and  avowedly  in 
the  interests  of  Christian  evangelism. 

You  must  not,  however,  understand  me  to  mean 
that  all  the  missionaries  in  India  are  divided  into  these 
two  classes  of  teachers  and  preachers,  and  that  one 
never  does  the  work  of  the  other.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  nearly  all  preaching  missionaries  are  compelled 
to  give  more  or  less  attention  to  school  work.     If  not 


54  Missionary   Addresses. 

among  non-christian  people,  jet  among  their  converts 
they  will  find  the  necessity  for  maintaining  efficient 
schools,  and  if  they  themselves  are  not  compelled  to  do 
the  work  of  teaching  they  must  supervise  those  who 
do,  and  hence  the  average  missionary  is  obliged  to  be 
a  school  superintendent  as  well  as  a  preacher.  And  I 
may  here  add  that,  with  regard  to  many  kinds  of  mis- 
sionary labor  carried  on  in  India,  every  missionary 
ought  to  be  able  to  do  more  or  less  in  any  department 
at  any  time  an  emergency  may  demand  it  of  him. 

The  death  or  illness  of  a  colleague  may  throw  un- 
expected and  untried  labors  upon  the  missionary,  and 
hence  he  needs  to  be  both  able  and  willing  to  make 
himself  useful  not  only  in  his  own  chosen  department, 
but  wherever  the  exigencies  of  the  common  cause  may 
seem  to  demand. 

As  a  question  of  policy  rather  than  method  I  may 
next  refer  to  the  question  of  self  support,  which  of  late 
years  has  been  the  subject  of  a  great  deal  of  warm  dis- 
cussion. It  is  conceded  by  all  parties  that  the  ultimate 
object  of  the  missionary  is  to  establish  self-support  in 
the  field  to  which  he  goes  ;  but  there  may  be  differ- 
ences of  opinion  existing  as  to  the  best  means  of  at- 
taining this  end.  At  the  very  outset  of  the  discussion 
we  must  pause  to  ask  what  is  meant  by  the  term  self- 
support.  It  is  defined  in  several  different  ways.  For 
instance,  Paul,  we  are  told,  illustrated  self-support 
when  he  worked  at  his  trade  as  a  tent-maker,  and  not 
a  few  missionaries  in  foreign  fields  support  themselves 
by  some  form  of  personal  labor.  In  this  case  the  mis- 
sionary supported  himself.  Others  assume  that  one 
or  more  workers  should  go  to  a  foreign  country  and 
by  applying  themselves  to  some  industry  provide  the 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  55 

means  of  sustaining  one  or  more  laborers  in  direct 
missionary  work.  A  third  definition  is  that  of  raising 
up  one  or  more  churches  in  a  foreign  country  on  the 
self-supporting  basis — that  is,  each  church  organized 
being  required  to  support  its  own  pastor  and  pay  its 
own  current  expenses  ;  while  still  a  fourth  definition 
is  that  each  missionary  shall  be  supported  by  the 
people  to  whom  he  ministers.  We  thus  see  a  very 
wide  question  presented  before  us. 

With  regard  to  the  first,  we  must  concede  at  once 
that  here  and  there  the  plan  is  a  good  one,  and  that 
under  exceptional  circumstances  in  every  age  some  of 
God's  servants  will  be  called  upon  to  do  as  Paul  did 
at  Corinth ;  but  the  rule  can  never  be  made  universal. 

Even  in  Paul's  case  it  was  exceptional,  and  in  our 
busy  world,  with  so  vast  a  work  to  be  accomplished, 
but  few  laborers  can  spare  the  time  for  such  manual 
labor  as  this  policy  would  involve.  The  second  plan 
is  likewise  admissible  under  exceptional  circumstances, 
but  attended  with  more  or  less  danger.  It  has  been 
tried  repeatedly  by  German  missionaries,  sometimes 
with  success,  but  sometimes  only  to  end  in  utter  fail- 
ure. A  number  of  young  men  go  abroad  and  com- 
bine together  to  prosecute  some  industrial  enterprise 
as  a  basis  for  missionary  support.  If  they  succeed 
they  are  very  apt  to  be  secularized,  while  if  they  fail 
their  missionary  enterprise  is  very  apt  to  fail  with 
them.  The  plan  is  very  foreign  to  the  original  mis- 
sionary spirit,  and  yet  under  some  circumstances  it  is 
perhaps  the  best  plan  that  could  be  adopted.  It  can- 
not, however,  be  accepted  as  a  rule,  and  should  be 
tried  very  sparingly.  The  third  plan,  that  of  organ- 
izing churches  capable  of  taking  care  of  themselves, 


56  Missionary  Addresses. 

is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  is  very  limited  in  its 
scope. 

It  may  be  a  good  thing  to  establish  a  self-sup- 
porting church  in  a  foreign  land,  but  that  does  not 
solve  the  question  of  the  evangelization  of  the  coun- 
try in  which  it  is  organized.  The  problem  to  be 
solved  is  that  of  self-supporting  missions,  not  that  of 
self-supporting  churches,  and  this  brings  us  to  the  real 
question,  How  can  men  wTho  are  wholly  given  up  to 
preaching  the  gospel  of  Christ  be  supported  by  the 
people  to  whom  they  preach  ?  How  can  a  church  in 
India,  for  instance,  not  only  support  its  pastor  and 
pay  its  own  expenses,  but  also  press  out  into  all  the 
surrounding  regions  and  lay  foundations  for  other 
churches,  or,  in  other  words,  propagate  itself  in  every 
direction,  without  falling  back  upon  resources  on  the 
other  side  of  the  globe  ? 

This  question  is  one  which  is  girt  about  on  all  sides 
by  formidable  difficulties.  It  is  not  difficult  in  some 
countries,  but  in  others  it  puts  a  severe  strain  upon 
the  highest  wisdom  and  strongest  faith  of  the  best 
missionaries  in  the  field.  It  has  not  yet  been  fully 
solved  anywhere  in  all  the  English  world,  although 
some  progress,  for  which  we  ought  to  be  very  grate- 
ful, has  been  realized  in  the  right  direction.  God 
will  throw  light  on  the  subject,  no  doubt,  but  thus  far 
the  chief  difficulty  is  found  in  the  extreme  poverty 
of  the  people.  In  all  non-christian  countries  of  the 
world  nine  tenths  of  the  people  are  wretchedly  poor. 
Indeed,  the  word  poor  conveys  to  your  mind  no  ade- 
quate idea  of  their  miserable  condition.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  of  native  Christians  together,  not  more  than 
two  or  three  of  whom  had  an  income  of  more  than 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  57 

$25  a  year.  In  the  country  villages  all  through  the 
empire  a  man  with  such  an  income  would  be  consid- 
ered fairly  well  off.  To  expect  such  people  to  sup- 
port an  American  missionary,  no  matter  how  simple 
his  habits,  is  unreasonable  in  the  last  degree. 
Whatever  else  may  be  done,  whatever  other  policy 
may  be  adopted,  it  may  as  well  be  assumed  once  for 
all  that  missionaries  sent  from  America  and  Europe 
cannot  be,  and  ought  not  to  be,  supported  by  the 
poor  people  to  whom  most  of  them  go.  In  a  very 
few  cases  it  may  be  otherwise,  but  as  a  rule  it 
may  be  expected  throughout  the  empire  that  the 
foreign  missionary  cannot  be  supported  by  his  na- 
tive nock. 

But  even  when  this  is  conceded  the  problem  still 
remains,  How  will  these  people  be  able  to  build 
their  own  places  of  worship,  support  their  own  pastor, 
and  yet  evangelize  the  millions  around  them  ?  I  con- 
fess I  do  not  see  clearly  how  it  is  to  be  done,  and  yet 
it  will  be  done,  and  must  be  done  if  India  is  ever 
evangelized  at  all.  The  ultimate  organization  of  the 
work  in  that  empire  will  be  very  different  from  the 
pattern  shown  to  the  missionary  by  the  American 
churches.  We  have  much  to  learn,  and  I  trust  wre 
are  all  learning,  but  it  is  far  too  soon  to  assume  that 
the  whole  problem  has  been  solved.  Much  has  been 
done  in  one  district  in  Burmah,  to  which  attention  has 
been  called  by  Mr.  Carpenter's  writings,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  Christians  of  that  district  are 
relatively  men  of  wealth  as  compared  with  the  bulk 
of  converts  found  in  Northern  India.  I  am  strong  in 
the  faith  that  God  is  leading  us  in  India  in  the  right 
direction,  and  in  due  time  we  will   see  indigenous, 


58  Missionary  Addresses. 

self-propagating,  self-supporting  churches  all  over  the 
empire. 

Closely  connected  with  the  policy  of  self-support 
we  find  another  method  or  policy  popularly  known  in 
some  mission  fields  as  "  faith-work."  The  well-known 
orphan  work  of  the  venerable  George  Mulleris  taken 
as  an  illustration  of  the  principle  upon  which  mission- 
ary work  should  be  conducted,  and  men  and  women 
go  forth  to  mission  fields  avowedly  trusting  in  God 
alone  for  support.  They  accept  what  is  sent  them 
unsolicited,  and  generally  make  it  a  rule  never  to  ask 
directly  for  any  contribution  for  their  work.  In 
many  instances,  however,  this  feature  of  the  policy  is 
not  rigidly  adhered  to,  and  some  of  these  faith  mis- 
sions in  process  of  time  have  become  known  as  suc- 
cessful collecting  agencies.  The  most  noted  move- 
ment of  the  kind  is  that  known  as  the  China  Inland 
Mission,  which  is  practically  maintained  and  directed 
by  the  faith  and  administrative  skill  of  one  man,  the 
well-known  J.  Hudson  Taylor.  Dr.  Cullis,  of  Boston, 
has  sent  out  missionaries  upon  the  same  plan,  and 
numbers  who  have  adopted  the  same  policy  have  been 
sent  from  England  and  Germany. 

The  missionaries  of  this  class  are,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, devoted  and  sincere  wwkers,  but  if  we  care- 
fully examine  their  operations  it  is  difficult  to  escape 
the  conviction  that  the  plan,  in  its  original  simplicity, 
can  only  be  worked  efficiently  by  individuals  who 
have  the  peculiar  gift  which  this  peculiar  kind  of 
wrork  demands.  Comparatively,  there  are  few  men 
who  can  repeat  the  work  of  George  Muller,  as  the 
failure  of  many  in  England  and  America  will  testify. 
So  in  the  mission  field  various  weak  points  will  be 


Missionaey  Methods  and  Policies.  59 

found  in  the  management  of  these  faith  missions.  In 
many  cases  the  workers  are  found  to  depend  not  so 
much  upon  their  own  faith  as  upon  that  of  their 
leaders,  or  upon  the  parties  sending  them  out.  Others 
quickly  fall  into  the  habit  of  soliciting  help  and  soon 
cease  to  differ  from  ordinary  Christian  workers  in 
this  respect.  Others,  again,  become  conspicuous  ex- 
amples of  begging  by  indirect  solicitation.  They 
publish  far  and  wide  accounts  of  their  labors,  not 
omitting  touching  and  almost  pitiful  statements  of 
their  personal  trials,  painting  in  graphic  colors  how 
they  have  to  walk  upon  the  very  verge  of  starvation's 
line,  and  keeping  prominent  the  fact  that  they  do  not 
personally  ask  for  help,  and  thus  make  about  as  effec- 
tive an  appeal  to  a  sympathetic  reader  as  could  be 
made.  With  the  very  best  and  kindest  feelings  for 
the  excellent  men  and  women  engaged  in  this  kind 
of  work,  I  cannot  avoid  the  conviction  that  a  great 
deal  of  their  so-called  faith  work  involves  much  less 
of  the  kind  of  faith  taught  and  illustrated  in  the  New 
Testament  than  the  workers  themselves  suspect.  In 
fact,  in  some  cases  shrewd,  far-seeing  business  men 
have  little  hesitation  in  attributing  their  success  in 
collecting  funds  to  the  same  business  principles  which 
lead  so  many  men  in  secular  pursuits  to  advertise  so 
widely.  But  do  not  understand  me  to  say  that  I 
decry  all  this  kind  of  work  and  all  these  kinds  of 
workers.  Among  the  many  there  are  a  few  who  con- 
sistently and  practically  act  upon  the  lofty  system 
which  they  adopt.  I  only  say  that  such  workers  are 
and  always  will  be  exceptional  persons,  and  that  the 
policy  of  George  Muller,  while  excellent  in  the  case 

of  individuals,  can  never  be  applied  to  an  organized 
5 


GO  Missionary  Addresses. 

community,  where  in  the  nature  of  the  case  his  ex- 
ceptional faith  will  be  the  gift  of  but  a  few. 

Let  none  who  hold  this  so-called  faith  principle 
dear  be  discouraged  by  what  I  have  said.  In  every 
mission  field  there  is,  and  always  will  be,  ample  room 
for  the  exercise  of  all  the  faith  which  any  Christian 
can  be  expected  to  possess.  The  work  is  expanding 
so  rapidly,  its  needs  are  so  great  and  its  home  resources 
so  limited,  that  the  missionary  can  make  but  little 
progress  before  he  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  press- 
ing emergencies  which  test  at  once  his  faith  in  God, 
and  compel  him  to  lean  hard  upon  the  divine  prom- 
ises. There  is  abundant  room  for  one  hundred  George 
Mullers  in  every  mission  field  of  the  world,  and  the 
magnificent  faith  which  he  has  so  long  illustrated  can 
find  ample  scope  without  the  organization  of  special 
missions  founded  upon  a  principle  which  can  only  be 
imperfectly  accepted  by  the  majority  of  those  enlisted 
in  the  service. 

As  one  result  of  the  educational  controversy,  some 
influential  'missionary  leaders  have  assumed  an  ex- 
treme position  in  reference  to  the  necessity  of  making 
all  missionaries  preachers  of  the  gospel.  They  would 
not  only  have  them  all  be  preachers,  but  they  insist 
that  they  must  all  be  evangelists.  They  would  ex- 
clude them  alike  from  the  school-room  and  the  pas- 
toral relation.  It  is  probable  that  most  of  those  who 
assume  this  extreme  position  do  not  use  the  word 
evangelist  in  its  strict  New  Testament  sense,  but  in 
any  case  their  policy  is  an  extremely  narrow  one  and 
can  hardly  prove  successful  on  a  large  scale.  When 
we  notice  how  few  Christian  preachers  are  evangel- 
ists in  any  proper  sense,  and  how  few  of  them  have 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  Gl 

the  evangelistic  gift,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  unless  mis- 
sionaries are  chosen  with  extraordinary  care,  only  a 
limited  proportion  of  them  will  be  fitted  for  this  pe- 
culiar work.  But  unless  thus  fitted,  the  missionary 
thus  compelled  to  labor  as  an  evangelist  must  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  find  his  position  uncomfort- 
able and  spend  most  of  his  labor  in  vain.  Many  ex- 
cellent young  men  have  been  sent  to  the  foreign 
field  to  engage  in  this  kind  of  work  who  have  scarcely 
any  qualification  for  the  service,  and  it  is  not  strange 
that  they  seem  to  fail  although  they  labor  faithfully 
and  devote  their  lives  to  their  Master.  If  evangelists 
can  be  found  in  sufficient  numbers  it  might  be  pos- 
sible to  conduct  a  mission  upon  this  basis,  but  cer- 
tainly this  essential  condition  should  not  be  overlooked. 
I  do  not  for  a  moment  decry  evangelists  as  a  class.  I 
would  put  them  forward  in  the  very  front  of  the 
battle ;  I  would  concede  to  them  the  place  of  honor 
all  along  the  line ;  I  would  to  God  that  their  number 
could  be  multiplied  a  thousand-fold ;  but  at  the  same 
time  we  must  remember  that  the  militant  host  of  the 
Captain  of  our  salvation  is  made  up  of  what  military 
men  would  call  various  arms  of  a  common  service. 
The  evangelists  compose  a  most  important  arm,  but 
yet  they  constitute  only  one  branch  of  a  common 
service.  They  are  needed  in  every  mission  field,  but 
in  connection  with  them  should  be  found  all  other 
classes  of  laborers  needed,  and  to  each  class  should  be 
assigned  the  peculiar  work  which  both  the  spirit  and 
providence  of  God  indicate  as  the  one  to  which  its 
members  are  adapted. 

Another  most  important  question  of  policy,  to  which 
I  can  only  briefly  call  your  attention,  but  which  is 


C2  Missionary  Addresses. 

worthy  of  careful  study,  is  that  of  the  organization 
and  development  of  the  churches  formed  in  heathen 
lands.  This  question  presents  itself  to  the  missionary 
as  soon  as  he  gathers  around  him  his  first  half  dozen 
converts,  and,  simple  as  the  problem  may  seem  to  one 
looking  at  it  from  a  distance,  it  becomes  very  grave 
indeed  when  the  missionary  on  the  ground  remem- 
bers that  the  organization  of  his  little  band  will  tell 
for  good  or  ill  upon  the  future  Christianity  of  the 
people  among  whom  he  labors,  long  after  he  is  in  his 
grave.  In  a  country  where  every  thing  Christian  is 
new,  where  not  a  stone  of  any  foundation  has  been 
laid,  where  precedents  are  rare  if  not  unknown,  and 
where  advisers  are  perhaps  all  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe,  it  requires  ripe  wisdom  and  abounding 
grace  to  enable  those  upon  whom  the  responsibility 
rests  to  do  their  work.  To  say  they  are  liable  to 
make  mistakes,  and  perhaps  serious  mistakes,  would  be 
superfluous,  and  yet  it  ought  to  be  accepted  as  a 
settled  policy  of  missionary  administration,  that  in  all 
foreign  countries  or  mission  fields  those  on  the  spot 
shall  be  intrusted  with  the  responsibility  of  adminis- 
tering the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  their  converts, 
effecting  the  organization  of  churches,  and  directing 
in  all  the  development  of  the  work. 

I  do  not  mean  that  the  missionaries  in  the  field 
should  themselves  do  this,  but  rather  that  they,  witli 
the  co-operation  of  their  converts,  should  bear  the  re- 
sponsibility. The  idea  prevails  very  widely  that  all 
converts  from  heathenism  must  be  treated  like  so 
many  children,  and  prepared  by  a  slow  process,  ex- 
tending over  a  generation  or  two,  for  bearing  any 
responsibility  in  the  management  of  the  churches  to 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  63 

winch  they  belong.  This  notion  is  a  very  mistaken 
one.  Ignorant  and  inexperienced  as  a  convert  may 
be,  he  nevertheless  is  a  Christian  member  of  a  Chris- 
tian Church  and  must  be  treated  accordingly.  They 
may  be  fitted  for  only  a  very  simple  organization,  but 
let  them  have  such  a  one  as  will  be  suited  to  them. 
They  must  in  every  case  be  intrusted  with  important 
responsibilities  in  the  little  churches  to  which  they 
belong.  The  missionaries  cannot  safely  assume  that 
their  converts  are  so  many  children,  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  can  missionary  authorities  in  England  or 
America  commit  the  more  serious  mistake  of  sup- 
posing that  foreign  missions  must  have  their  ecclesi- 
astical affairs  administered  by  parties  on  the  other 
side  of  the  globe.  In  every  living  church  there  are 
laws  of  growth  as  natural  and  yet  as  inseparable  from 
life  itself  as  the  corresponding  laws  which  we  see  in 
plants  and  trees,  and  we  must  assume  that  the  devel- 
opment of  every  little  church  and  of  every  Christian 
community  will  go  on  according  to  fixed  laws,  the 
development  being  from  within  and  not  from  with- 
out. Hence  I  have  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  the 
whole  machinery  of  ecclesiastical  administration  ought 
to  be  present  in  every  mission  field.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  great  missionary  societies  of  the  world  have 
for  the  most  part  been  very  slow  in  conceding  this 
point,  and  hence  it  happens  that  men  of  ripe  expe- 
rience in  India  meet  together  annually,  propose 
changes  and  make  arrangements  for  the  work  of  the 
ensuing  year,  and  then  have  to  wait  until  their  pro- 
posals are  sanctioned  by  parties  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe  before  they  can  take  a  step  in  carrying 
them  into  effect.     Our  own  Church  has  perhaps  gone 


GJ:  Missionary  Addresses. 

farther  than  any  other  in  laying  the  responsibility  of 
the  administration  in  onr  foreign  fields  upon  those  on 
the  ground,  and  I  am  glad  to  add  that  the  general 
tendency  every- where  seems  to  be  in  this  direction ; 
but  it  ought  to  be  at  once  accepted  as  the  fixed  policy 
of  all  missionary  boards.  And  in  sending  men  out 
as  missionaries,  care  should  be  taken  in  every  case  to 
have  at  least  a  fair  proportion  of  those  chosen,  men 
who  have  capacity  to  organize  and  to  administer 
affairs  generally. 

While  touching  at  this  point  upon  the  home  ad- 
ministration of  missionary  affairs  I  can  hardly  omit 
to  call  your  attention  to  what  has  long  seemed  to 
many  a  radical  error  on  the  part  of  our  own  Church. 
I  refer  to  the  singular  plan  of  organization  by  which 
the  missionary  work  of  the  Church,  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  whole  Christian  wOrld  understands  the 
term  missionary  work,  is  combined  with  what  is 
known  as  the  wTork  of  Home  Missions.  It  is  easier, 
perhaps,  to  unify  the  administration  in  this  way  than 
to  have  two  distinct  organizations,  but  it  is  felt  by 
very  many,  especially  those  who  appreciate  the  orig- 
inal missionary  idea  of  the  age,  that  such  an  arrange- 
ment can  only  be  effected  at  the  serious  expense  of 
the  foreign  work.  There  is  something  about  it  which 
seems  to  obscure  the  very  idea  upon  which  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  is  founded.  Had  William  Carey 
when  about  to  leave  England  been  asked  to  adopt 
such  a  policy  in  connection  with  his  enterprise  he 
could  hardly  have  regarded  it  otherwise  than  as  a 
proposal  practically  to  abandon  his  scheme.  His  was 
a  distinct  conception  altogether,  and  such  is  the  gen- 
eral conviction  of  the  Christian  world  to-day.     Evan- 


Missionary  Methods  and  Policies.  65 

gelistic  work  in  Christian  lands  is  distinctly  different 
from  the  work  of  evangelizing  non-cliristian  nations, 
and  Christians  generally  recognize  it  as  such.  Money 
asked  for  the  missionary  cause  in  our  churches  is 
nearly  always  asked  in  the  name  of  the  heathen,  and 
it  ought  to  be  expended  for  the  purpose  for  which  it 
is  given.  It  would  be  difficult  at  this  late  day  to  sep- 
arate the  home  from  the  foreign  work,  but  sooner  or 
later  this  must  be  done,  and  the  sooner  it  is  attempted 
the  fewer  will  be  the  difficulties  encountered.  For 
my  own  part  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  both 
of  these  departments  of  labor  would  gain  by  the  sep- 
aration. Our  Church,  by  the  very  plan  of  its  organi- 
zation, is  a  home  missionary  Church.  The  foreign 
work  was  not  provided  for  in  this  original  organiza- 
tion, and  should  have  been  allowed  the  exclusive  ben- 
efit of  its  own  organization  from  the  first.  Our 
great  Church  can  never  move  forward  in  the  career 
of  uniform  and  wide-spread  conquest  which  might  be 
rightfully  expected  from  so  powerful  a  body  of 
Christians,  until  our  missionary  forces  are  cut  loose 
from  all  other  entanglements,  and  their  undivided 
energies  thus  turned  upon  the  specific  work  which  God 
has  set  before  them. 


60  Missionary  Addresses. 


THE  MORAL  STATE  OF  THE  HEATHEN. 

THE  words  heathen  and  pagan,  as  you  are  no 
doubt  aware,  originally  signified  little  more  than 
villager  or  countryman.  They  were  terms  applied  to 
the  villagers  or  country  people  living  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  cities  and  larger  towns,  and  who  from 
their  remote  situation  were  the  last  to  accept  Chris- 
tianity. It  thus  happened  that  for  a  considerable 
space  of  time  the  country  people,  that  is,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  jpagus  in  Latin-speaking  countries,  and  the 
heath-dwellers  among  our  own  ancestors,  were  the 
only  people  known  wTho  did  not  profess  the  Christian 
religion,  and  hence  the  terms  pagan  and  heathen 
gradually  lost  their  original  meaning  and  were  ap- 
plied to  all  people  in  all  parts  of  the  world  who  ad- 
hered to  their  ancient  religions  and  rejected  Chris- 
tianity. At  the  present  clay  the  former  word  is 
applied  to  the  more  barbarous  non-christian  nations 
and  tribes,  while  the  word  heathen  is  received  in  a 
slightly  better  sense,  and  applied  to  the  more  civilized 
nations  who  reject  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism, 
and  retain  their  ancient  idolatry.  In  the  present 
address  I  use  the  term  heathen  more  in  the  sense  of 
non-christian  than  in  the  more  narrow  acceptation 
which  a  strict  definition  would  require.  It  is  a  sign 
of  the  times,  and  I  certainly  regard  it  as  a  favorable 
sign,  that  the  more  intelligent  people  in  India  have 
so  keen  a  perception  of  the  disfavor  with  which  this 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         G7 

word  is  viewed  in  England  and  America  that  they 
strongly  object  to  have  it  applied  to  themselves. 
They  insist  that  they  are  not  heathen  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  civilized  world  generally  accepts  that  term, 
and  for  one  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  apply  it  to  them 
while  they  so  heartily  disclaim  it.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  large  numbers  of  them  are  not  heathen  in  any 
proper  sense,  and  if  I  were  to  use  the  term  at  all  in 
its  strict  application,  I  should  insist  on  applying  it  to 
large  numbers  of  depraved  people  in  Christian  lands 
as  well  as  to  those  who  bow  down  to  idols  in  non- 
christian  lands.  The  question  which  I  wish  to  dis- 
cuss at  present  may  perhaps  be  stated  thus :  What  is 
the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  nations  which 
do  not  accept  Christianity  ?  or,  How  do  such  nations 
compare  morally  with  those  nations  in  which  Chris- 
tianity is  the  popular  religion? 

This  question  is  one  of  extreme  interest  at  the 
present  time.  It  very  naturally  affects  the  mission- 
ary enterprise  in  a  practical  way,  and  it  also  enters 
largely  into  the  religious  controversies  of  the  age. 
Two  views  are  held,  diametrically  opposed  to  one 
another,  and  both,  I  regret  to  say,  extreme,  and  con- 
sequently inaccurate.  On  one  hand,  it  has  been  the 
custom  for  many  years  to  take  a  verse  or  two  out  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Eomans,  and 
make  it  descriptive  of  all  the  heathen  in  the  world. 
Some  intelligent  people  seem  to  assume  that  if  they 
did  not  succeed  in  painting  as  black  a  picture  of  the 
moral  state  of  every  heathen  community  as  that 
drawn  in  such  terrible  outline  in  this  chapter,  the 
very  inspiration  of  the  epistle  will  be  impeached  ;  and 
hence  we  are  told  over  and  over  again  that  we  have 


68 


Missionary    A  DDBKSSEB. 


in  iliis  brief  outline  a  faithful    portraiture  of   the 

licai  lien  of  the  present  day.     Others,  again,  are  im 
pressed  with   the   conviction  that  (lie  only   way   to 
stimulate  an  ardent   missionary  spirit  among  Chris- 
tians  is  to  show  the  deplorable  condition   of   the 

heal  lien  world,  and  thus  appeal   to  (lie  pity,  sympathy 

and  Christian  love  <>f  those  living  in  Christian  lands. 

Ilenee,  perhaps  more  or  less  unconsciously,  there  has 

crept,  into  missionary  literature  a  spirit  which  I  have 
long  regretted,  which  depreciates  every  tiling  found 

in  non  ehrist  ian  countries,  which  exaggerates  the 
faults  of  the  people,  magnifies  their  defects,  and  pict 
nres   them  as   living   in  almost    absolute  darkness  and 

misery.    This  is  one  extreme.     'The  other  goes  quite 

as  far  in  the  opposite  direction.  Professor  Max  Mid- 
ler, for  instance,  is  so  carried  away  by  his  enthusiasm 
that  he  discovers  virtues  where  they  have  but  Blight 
existence,  finds  gems  si  ivw  n  all  around  where  ordi- 
nary eyes  cannot,   perceive  them,  a 1 1<  1   elevates  the 

religion  Of  the  Hindu  tO  a.  plane  which  t6  the   Hindus 

themselves  seems  as   high   as  that  of  Christianity. 

Edwin  Arnold  is  another  illustrious  example  of  this 
same  class  of  e\t  rcniists.     \V  it  houl,  any  serious  at  tempt, 

to  follow  the  line  of  sober  scholarship,  he  gives  wings 

to  his  Imagination,  and  places  in  a  seal  ol  honor 
hardly  second  to  Christianity  one  of  the  most  barren 
and  soulless  religious  systems  which  has  ever  atllicled 
the  human    race.      All    over  the  world    those  who   are 

eclectics  in  religion,  that  is,  who  decline  to  accept 
Christianity  as  the  only  true  religion,  given  by  God 

to  tin'  human  race,  are  anxious  to  proyo  that  the  great 
systems    of     Hinduism     and     Mohammedanism,    like 

Christianity  itself,  are  more  or  Less  <d'  divine  origin, 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         09 

and  have  been  providentially  developed  for  the  use 
of  the  race.  In  order  to  make  good  their  theory  they 
naturally  try  to  magnify  all  the  virtues  of  the  people 
whom  we  are  accustomed  to  call  heathen  ;  and  hence 
we  meet  with  beautiful  pictures,  painted  in  glowing 
colors,  descriptive  of  simple  virtues  which  the  mis- 
sionary always  fails  to  discover. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  both  these  extreme  views 
are  wrong.  No  people  in  the  world  are  so  utterly 
wretched  and  miserable  as  some  of  the  dark  pictures 
drawn  by  friends  of  missions  would  represent.  Close 
attention  to  the  words  of  Paul  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Romans,  will  show  that  he  does  not  affirm  that  all 
heathen  were  such  as  he  describes,  but  rather  that  the 
deliberate  forsaking  of  God  and  the  acceptance  of 
base  and  gross  idolatry,  did  produce  undoubtedly  such 
effects  as  he  mentions.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
in  modern  heathen  lands  this  terrible  picture  can  be 
verified  but  too  easily ;  but  the  apostle  Paul  was  too 
wi^e  a  man,  and  too  well  informed  to  assume  for  a 
moment  that  all  people  living  in  heathen  lands  were 
of  this  kind.  When  he  was  expostulating  with  the 
multitude  who  wished  to  worship  him  and  his  com- 
panion at  Lystra,  he  said,  in  a  more  cheerful  strain, 
that  God  filled  their  hearts  "  with  food  and  gladness." 

In  his  day,  as  in  our  day,  we  may  find  much  sun- 
shine in  the  darkest  corners  of  our  darkened  earth. 
I  have  never  met  any  people  so  bad,  so  degraded, 
that  joy  had  ceased  to  be  an  experience  of  their 
hearts.  It  would  be  impeaching  both  the  goodness 
and  grace  of  God  to  assume  that  any  human  beings 
are  so  miserable  and  so  depraved  as  the  mass  of  the 
heathen  world  are  sometimes  depicted.     It  should  be 


TO  Missionary  Addresses. 

onr  joy  and  our  boast  to  maintain  constantly  that 
God  sends  his  Spirit  into  every  human  heart,  en- 
lightens every  conscience,  quickens  the  religious  sen- 
sibility of  every  individual,  and  does  this  not  daily 
but  constantly.  But  for  this  gracious  and  never 
ceasing  interposition  of  our  loving  heavenly  Father 
our  poor  world  would  become  a  hell  in  less  than 
twenty -four  hours.  But  the  worst  parts  of  our  earth 
are  better  than  a  hell.  That  is  a  place  utterly  forsaken 
by  God.  There  is  more  joy  than  sorrow  in  the  most 
unhappy  corner  of  our  poor  earth,  and  bad  as  the 
condition  of  the  majority  of  the  human  race  un- 
doubtedly is,  there  are  still  in  every  land  manifesta- 
tions of  goodness  for  which  we  ought  to  be  unspeak- 
ably thankful. 

With  regard  to  the  other  extreme,  I  can  hardly 
seriously  discuss  it.  It  is  based  upon  man's  imagina- 
tion, and  not  upon  any  known  and  accepted  facts. 
When  I  meet  a  man  who  seriously  argues  that  the 
condition  of  the  heathen  is  better  than  that  of  people 
living  in  Christian  lands,  I  simply  feel  that  he  is  not 
a  man  to  be  argued  with.  His  imagination  must  be 
too  active,  or  his  knowledge  too  limited,  or  his  mem- 
ory too  treacherous,  or  his  judgment  too  warped  to 
fit  him  for  a  serious  discussion  of  such  a  subject. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  there  are  some 
very  strange  contradictions  which  meet  the  careful 
and  candid  observer  when  he  begins  to  compare  hea- 
then lands  with  those  known  as  Christian — when,  for 
instance,  he  compares  India  with  England  or  China 
with  the  United  States.  It  is  not  difficult  to  array 
certain  facts  in  such  startling  contrast  that  the  super- 
ficial observer  might  easily  enough  be  led  to  think 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         71 

that  the  two  western  countries  surpass  their  eastern 
rivals  in  violence  and  vice.  You  may  have  heard  of 
the  first  Dr.  Scudder,  when  he  brought  one  of  his 
sons,  who  had  been  born  in  India,  to  this  country, 
rebuking  a  man  on  the  docks  at  New  York  for  swear- 
ing. "  My  son,"  he  said,  "  never  before  heard  God's 
name  blasphemed,  although  he  was  born  and  has  been 
brought  up  in  a  heathen  land."  I  have  myself  felt  this 
most  keenly  when  returning  to  America.  You  may 
hear  more  profanity  in  an  ordinary  smoking-car  in 
the  course  of  an  hour  than  you  would  hear  in  a 
heathen  village  in  a  whole  year.  Then  we  have  the 
startling  spectacle  of  the  English  gin  shop  and  the 
American  saloon,  practically  unknown  in  heathen 
lands  until  carried  there  by  what  we  call  Christian 
civilization.  The  sad  story  of  the  opium  trade  forced 
upon  China  is  but  too  well  known.  In  India 
Europeans  of  low  character  are  much  more  violent  in 
their  lawlessness  than  the  corresponding  classes  of 
Hindus,  and  the  simple-minded  natives  very  naturally 
conclude  that  there  is  a  worse  kind  of  depravity  in  the 
English  nature  than  in  their  own.  Stranger  still,  I 
may  mention  a  fact  which  always  astonishes  inquirers 
in  this  country  :  I  am  often  asked  if  the  people  of 
India  are  not,  like  all  heathen,  given  up  to  licentious 
habits,  and  when  I  reply  that  the  most  horrible  inde- 
cency to  be  found  in  the  whole  empire  is  witnessed 
in  the  European  quarters  of  Bombay  and  Calcutta, 
my  questioners  are  always  surprised  beyond  measure  ; 
and  yet  such  is  the  fact.  In  short,  at  every  turn  we 
meet  with  these  surprises,  and  with  contradictions 
which  need  explanation. 

In  studying  this  complicated  and  perplexing  ques- 


72  Missionary  Addresses. 

tion  we  must  always  remember  that  human  nature, 
apart  from  saving  grace,  is  every-where  the  same. 
The  Hindu,  the  Chinaman,  the  Englishman,  and 
the  American,  are  all  precisely  alike  in  the  essential 
features  of  their  moral  constitution,  and  when  we 
discover  differences  these  may  always  be  traced  to 
some  adequate  cause ;  hence  it  follows  that  hea- 
thenism, in  the  proper  acceptation  of  the  term,  can- 
not be  confined  within  geographical  limits.  The  man 
who  forsakes  God  in  order  to  worship  wealth,  is  pre- 
cisely on  a  par  with  the  man  who  forsakes  God  for 
the  worship  of  an  animal  or  a  stone.  Both  of  them 
may  be  expected  to  lapse  into  a  state  of  fearful  moral 
declension,  and  hence  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised  when 
when  we  discover  even  more  startling  habits  of  unnat- 
ural depravity  in  our  great  Christian  cities  than  appear 
on  the  surface  of  society  in  heathen  lands.  St.  Paul's 
wTell-known  picture  is  a  more  faithful  description  of 
extremes  of  vice  now  practiced  in  Paris  and  New 
York  than  of  any  thing  I  have  ever  become  cogni- 
zant of  during  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century's 
residence  in  India.  I  am  not  surprised  at  this  in 
the  least ;  I  should  be  surprised  if  it  were  otherwise. 
Human  nature  being  the  same  essentially  every-where, 
it  is  but  reasonable  to  expect  that  those  who  utterly  for- 
sake God  in  New  York  and  Paris,  being  more  intelligent 
and  having  greater  resources  to  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  sin,  would  surpass  in  atrocious  wickedness 
the  mure  simple  and  less  capable  idolaters  of  non- 
christian  lands.  It  is  a  startling  thought  that  the 
great  progress  which  our  race  is  making  in  what  we 
call  civilization  adds  facilities  not  only  for  Christian 
work,  but  for  the  practice  of  every  species  of  iniquity. 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         73 

Every  new  invention,  every  discovery  in  the  arts, 
every  great  advance  in  knowledge,  involves  inevitably 
immense  perils.  The  man  who  ceases  to  fear  God 
acquires  an  awful  capacity  for  turning  all  blessings 
into  so  many  curses,  and  hence  the  greater  our  advance- 
ment in  civilization  the  more  terrible  is  the  liability 
incurred  if  our  civilization  is  not  kept  permeated 
through  and  through  with  a  Christian  spirit. 

Another  explanation  of  this  singular  anomaly  may 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  sin  committed  against  light 
is  more  fearful  in  its  consequences  than  if  committed 
in  the  midst  of  darkness.  The  higher  the  elevation 
upon  which  a  man  stands  the  deeper  will  he  sink 
when  he  plunges  into  the  mire  before  him.  Those 
who  sin  in  a  Christian  land  stand  upon  a  higher  plane 
than  that  occupied  by  persons  living  in  heathen  lands, 
and  hence  when  they  abandon  themselves  to  evil  ways 
they  seem  to  sink  deeper  into  the  horrible  pit  than 
the  poor  creatures  in  heathen  countries  whom  we  are 
accustomed  to  think  of  as  the  worst  of  the  human 
race.  The  same  law  will  explain  the  fact  that  a 
woman  who  is  utterly  abandoned  to  evil  ways  so  often 
seems  worse  than  a  reckless  sinner  of  the  other  sex. 
She  has  fallen  from  a  loftier  height,  she  has  taken  a 
leap  from  an  eminence  which  a  man  never  occupies, 
and  by  the  operation  of  a  simple  law  sinks  to  a  lower 
depth.  We  see  this  law  operating  constantly  all  over 
the  world.  It  is  better  never  to  have  the  truth  at  all 
than  to  hold  it  in  unrighteousness.  I  often  hear  it 
said  that  the  Mohammedans  are  so  much  better  in 
their  morality  than  the  Hindus  because  they  possess 
so  much  more  vital  truth.  They  believe  in  the  one 
ever-living  God,  they  receive  as  his  word  large  por- 


7-i  Missionary  Addresses. 

tions  of  our  Scriptures,  and  in  point  of  religious 
intelligence  are,  no  doubt,  far  in  advance  of  any  other 
non-christian  people  except  the  Jews — and  yet,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  morality  of  the  Hindus  is  supe- 
rior to  that  of  the  Mohammedans.  I  once  lived  in  a 
province  inhabited  exclusively  by  Hindus,  and  I  dis- 
covered that  some  of  the  most  terrible  vices  known 
in  the  Mohammedan  parts  of  India  were  never  even 
mentioned  among  those  simple  but  ignorant  villagers 
wTho  had  never  known  any  worship  excepting  that  of 
idols  and  false  gods.  This  unexpected  fact  I  have  al- 
ways accounted  for  in  one  way.  Mohammed  gave  to  his 
followers  a  large  amount  of  vital  truth,  but  he  taught 
them  how  to  hold  it  in  unrighteousness.  Hence,  so 
far  from  regarding  the  progress  of  Islamism  in  Africa 
and  other  barbarous  regions  as  a  blessing  to  the  peo- 
ple, I  am  inclined  to  look  upon  it  as  a  great  calamity. 
You  are,  perhaps,  expecting  me  to  go  on  with 
these  admissions  until  I  shall  have  almost  conceded 
that  in  the  comparison  before  us  Christianity  has  no 
advantages  peculiarly  its  own.  I  am  very  far,  how- 
ever, from  any  such  thought  or  purpose.  I  merely 
wish  to  put  the  actual  facts  of  the  case  honestly 
before  you.  But  when  I  have  conceded  every  thing 
the  sad  truth  remains,  when  viewed  broadly,  about  as 
you  have,  perhaps,  always  been  accustomed  to  view  it. 
The  moral  state  of  the  heathen  at  its  very  best  is  de- 
plorable. I  do  not  mean  that  the  people  are  all  utterly 
depraved,  or  brutal,  or  violent,  or  devilish,  or  gross,  or 
sensual,  or  inhuman,  as  so  many  have  been  accustomed 
to  picture  them ;  but  two  or  three  prominent  facts 
have  met  me  every-where  in  India  and  cannot  escape 
the  attention  of  any  close  observer. 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         75 

In  the  first  place,  the  people  are  "without  God." 
As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  they  do  not  know  him. 
They  believe  in  his  existence,  they  admit,  as  a  general 
rule,  that  he  is  the  Creator  and  upholder  of  all  things, 
and  many  of  them  may  go  farther  and  admit  that  he  is 
the  Father  of  all  men  ;  but  aside  from  a  vague  admission 
of  these  truths  you  may  search  day  after  day,  week 
after  week,  month  after  month,  without  finding  a  man 
or  woman  who,  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  word, 
knows  God.  What  this  lack  of  knowledge  fully  im- 
plies I  need  not  attempt  to  state.  Take  out  of  our 
own  country  the  thousands  and  the  millions  who  know 
God,  take  away  all  the  light  and  knowledge  and  spir- 
itual power  and  restraining  influences  which  accom- 
pany these  persons,  and  you  have  robbed  our  country 
of  three  fourths  of  its  power  in  every  good  direc- 
tion at  a  single  stroke.  I  do  not  speculate  upon  this 
subject ;  I  do  not  say  that  the  heathen  have  no  belief 
in  God's  existence,  or  that  they  are  not  accessible  to 
good  influences,  or  that  they  have  no  conviction  of 
right  and  wrong,  but  I  simply  state  the  fact  that  in  the 
course  of  a  long  residence  in  India,  during  which  I 
talked  with  hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  people,  I 
never  met  with  any  person  who  was  not  a  Christian, 
or  who  had  not  been  in  close  contact  with  Christians, 
who  had  a  personal  knowledge  of  God  as  his  Father, 
much  less  of  a  divine  Saviour  or  indwelling  Com- 
forter. 

I  may  mention  another  fact  which  is  closely  con- 
nected with  the  foregoing  and  which  may  be  regarded 
as  a  corollary  of  it.  The  heathen  are  destitute  not 
only  of  the  personal  knowledge  of  God,  but  also  of 
that  hope  which  is  essential  to  a  genuine   religious 


7(3  Missionary  Addresses. 

life.  Among  those  who  have  been  in  close  contact 
with  Christians  the  case  may  be  different,  but  the 
mass  of  the  people  never  think  of  a  future  state, 
and  are  absolutely  destitute  of  any  thing  which  could 
properly  be  called  a  living  hope.  I  have  questioned 
scores  and  scores  of  intelligent  and  thoughtful  men 
on  the  subject,  and  have  always  received  the  same 
answer.  When  I  ask,  Where  do  yon  expect  to  go 
when  you  die  ?  I  am  always  obliged  to  explain  my 
meaning  at  some  length  before  I  can  make  myself 
understood  clearly,  and  then  the  answer  almost  inva- 
riably is  :  "  How  can  I  know  ? "  Hope  as  a  living, 
active  power  in  the  heart  is  something  they  seem  to 
know  nothing  of.  While  they  rarely  seem  concerned 
about  their  future,  while  they  almost  invariably  die 
in  a  state  of  apparent  apathy  rather  than  alarm,  yet 
they  seem,  as  far  as  the  observer  can  possibly  perceive, 
to  launch  forth  upon  an  untried  and  shoreless  sea 
without  a  star  in  the  sky,  or  a  single  ray  of  light  to 
guide  them  on  their  unknown  course.  What  this 
means  only  Christian  people  can,  perhaps,  fully  appre- 
ciate. How  much  the  Christian  hope  which  dwells 
in  the  hearts  of  the  believers  all  over  this  land  is 
really  doing  for  the  people  we  little  know.  It  puts 
brightness,  and  life,  and  buoyancy,  and  strength  into 
the  great  heart  of  the  nation.  It  is  an  unspeakable 
blessing  to  us  for  this  present  life,  even  if  it  did  not 
point  to  any  thing  beyond ;  and  when  we  remember 
how  it  illuminates  the  pathway  of  so  many  millions, 
how  it  throws  out  bright  rays  into  the  darkness  and 
gloom  which  gather  arouud  every  weary  pilgrim  as 
he  nears  the  end  of  his  journey,  how  it  seems  to 
bring  heaven  near,  how  it  lifts  the  soul  above  the  suf- 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         77 

fering  and  sorrow  of  our  present  life,  we  are  almost 
startled  to  think  of  the  millions  upon  millions  of 
people  who  "  have  no  hope  and  are  without  God  in 
the  world."  I  do  not  say  that  they  have  no  hope  of 
any  kind,  but  I  do  affirm  that  this  living  hope, 
this  divine  spark  in  the  human  heart,  is  something 
one  seeks  for  in  vain  among  the  millions  of  hea- 
thenism. 

It  must  be  admitted,  too,  that  the  moral  standard 
in  heathen  nations  is  much  lower  than  that  in  Chris- 
tian lands,  at  least  in  those  lands  where  the  Bible  cir- 
culates freely.  It  is  needless  to  give  many  specifica- 
tions here,  but  with  regard  to  the  truth  of  the  gen- 
eral statement  I  think  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt.  Some  forms  of  sin  abound  in  America  more 
than  in  India,  and  I  am  glad  to  add  that  some  vir- 
tues are  practiced  in  India  to  an  extent  which  the 
Americans  have  never  attained  and  which  they  ought 
to  make  haste  to  imitate.  But  after  making  all  rea- 
sonable and  possible  concessions,  I  see  no  escape  from 
the  conclusion  that  heathen  morality  in  its  best 
estate  is  measured  by  a  very  low  standard.  It  is  not 
only  low,  but  has  no  power  to  elevate  itself.  Special 
pleaders,  like  Max  Muller,  forget  that  by  their  own 
showing  all  these  Oriental  systems  have  been  losing 
ground,  morally,  for  centuries  upon  centuries.  The 
golden  age  of  every  religion  except  Christianity  is 
in  the  past.  The  ancestors  of  the  present  Hindus 
maintained  a  purer  morality  three  thousand  years  ago 
than  is  known  in  India  to-day.  Through  all  the  long 
generations  which  have  since  passed,  every  system 
of  religion  which  has  been  introduced  into  India  has 
gravitated  downward  from  the  very  first.     We  do  not 


7S  Missionary  Addresses. 

discover  in  Brahminism,  or  Buddhism,  or  Moham- 
medanism, the  slightest  power  to  rise  upward  or 
advance  forward  in  any  good  direction.  All  these 
systems  alike  have  failed  to  do  any  thing  for  woman, 
have  failed  to  extend  sympathy  to  the  poor,  to  elevate 
the  lowly,  to  minister  to  the  sorrowing,  to  bind  up 
the  broken-hearted,  or,  in  short,  to  perforin  any  of 
the  chief  offices  which  a  religion  sent  from  God  may 
be  expected  to  accomplish.  Your  mighty  nation  has 
a  stupendous  struggle  on  its  hands  in  trying  to  sup- 
press the  infamous  polygamy  of  Utah.  Do  any  of 
those  who  contend  that  heathen  morality  is  practically 
as  sood  as  that  of  Christian  nations,  ever  reflect  for 
a  moment  that  if  the  United  States  were  a  heathen 
country  Mormonism  would  take  its  place  among  the 
other  religions  of  the  land  without  so  much  as  creat- 
ing a  ripple  upon  the  surface  of  society  ? 

It  is  quite  popular  in  some  circles,  and  is  supposed 
by  many  to  savor  of  learning  and  philosophy,  to  scout 
the  old  Christian  idea  that  all  the  great  religions  of 
the  world  except  Christianity  are  the  offspring  of  the 
devil,  and  to  hold  in  its  place  the  preposterous  view  that 
they  were  all  originated  and  developed  by  God  himself, 
that  they  all  have  been,  and  still  are,  serving  their 
purpose,  each  in  its  own  sphere,  in  the  education  of 
the  human  race,  and  all  jointly  contributing  to  what 
mio-ht  be  called  the  religious  evolution  of  mankind. 
For  one,  I  confess  to  a  little  impatience  with  this  kind 
of  so-called  philosophy.  I  have  no  more  respect  for 
Mohammedanism  as  a  system  than  for  Mormonism. 
I  do  not  believe  that  God  had  any  more  to  do  with 
the  foundation  of  the  one  system  than  of  the  other, 
nor  do  I  believe  that  he  was  in  any  way  more  respon- 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         70 

sible  for  the  origin  and  development  of  Brahmin  ism 
or  Buddhism,  than  for  the  origin  of  the  worship  of 
Baal,  or  the  sacred  animals  of  Egypt.  It  is  simply 
nonsense  to  talk  in  this  way  with  the  facts  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  race  spread  out  before  us  as 
they  are.  That  God  has  had  much  to  do  in  guiding, 
restraining,  and  oftentimes  resisting,  the  progress  of 
these  various  systems,  every  one  will  admit  who 
believes  in  the  divine  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment of  this  world ;  but  to  make  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  responsible  for  sin,  and  folly,  and  error, 
and  falsehood,  and  injustice,  and  iniquity  in  a  thou- 
sand forms,  is  a  kind  of  philosophy  which  intelligent 
Christians  can  well  afford  to  discard. 

But  while  making  these  severe  charges  against  what 
we  call  heathenism,  do  not  understand  me  for  a  mo- 
ment as  bringing  railing  charges  against  the  heathen 
themselves.  I  have  little  sympathy,  perhaps  I  ought 
to  say,  a  great  deal  of  repugnance,  for  the  extrava- 
gant misstatements  made  about  the  horrible  condition 
of  the  heathen  nations.  While  their  condition  is  a 
sad  one,  while  every  true  Christian  heart  must  be 
stirred  with  deep  sympathy  in  their  behalf,  yet  there 
is  much  to  alleviate  their  hardships  and  to  make  their 
lives  not  only  endurable,  but  oftentimes  bright  and 
happy.  The  longer  I  have  lived  among  the  people  of 
India  the  better  have  I  liked  them,  and  I  can  say  to-day 
without  any  shadow  of  affectation  that  I  love  them 
perhaps  better  than  the  people  of  my  native  land. 
They  have  many  noble  traits  of  character ;  they  have 
elements  of  moral  goodness  and  greatness  which, 
when  sanctified  by  grace,  will  give  them  a  noble  posi- 
tion in  the  great  family  of  our  common  Father  ;  they 


80  Missionary  Addresses. 

are  by  no  means  hard,  and  selfish,  and  cruel,  and  base, 
and  destitute  of  all  good  qualities.  Millions  of  them 
in  their  little  hamlets  live  quiet,  happy,  and  peaceful 
lives,  and  exemplify  many  noble  virtues  in  their  hum- 
ble little  homes.  In  a  land  cursed  with  polygamy 
there  are  yet  millions  of  faithful  wives  and  affectionate 
husbands.  The  parents  love  their  children  with  a 
passionate  affection,  and  the  children  respond  with  a 
dutiful  love  which  is  sometimes  beautiful  in  its  man- 
ifestations. Many  of  the  stories  told  about  the  cruel 
treatment  of  old  parents,  or  the  sacrifice  of  infants 
to  the  Ganges  or  to  wild  beasts,  have  been  undoubt- 
edly true,  but  in  all  my  life  in  India  I  never  knew  a 
single  case  of  an  infant  being  thrown  into  the  Ganges 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  goddess.  I  have  known  of  cruel 
treatment  to  aged  parents,  and  yet  I  have  seen  some 
of  these  old  persons  brought  at  the  last  extremity  to 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges  to  die,  and  have  with  my 
own  eyes  seen  their  children  waiting  upon  them  with 
an  affection  and  tenderness  which  were  truly  touch- 
ing. Hence  I  feel  bound  to  maintain  that  the  people 
of  India  are  a  more  noble  people,  a  better  people, 
and  a  more  promising  people,  than  the  outside  world 
has  ever  been  disposed  to  admit.  And  yet,  while 
conceding  all  that  I  possibly  can  in  their  behalf,  so 
keenly  do  I  feel  their  need  of  a  higher  and  purer 
life,  of  a  brighter  and  more  living  hope,  of  a  better 
and  nobler  civilization,  and  of  a  grander  future  as  a 
nation,  that  if  I  had  no  knowledge  of  a  future  state  of 
existence  at  all,  I  would  still  gladly  devote  the  best  ener- 
gies of  my  remaining  days  to  the  work  of  bringing  the 
people  of  India  to  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the 
sake  of  the  unspeakable  benefits  which  they  wouH 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heath  ex.         81 

receive  even  during  this  present  life.  The  service  of 
our  Saviour  is  profitable  for  all,  having  the  promise 
of  the  life  which  now  is,  and  if  we  could  not  add, 
"  and  of  that  which  is  to  come,"  I  should  still  give 
myself  freely  to  securing  the  benefit  of  this  promise 
for  the  present  life,  to  the  people  whom  God  has 
taught  me  to  love  with  an  affection  which  must  be  the 
offspring  of  his  own  blessed  Spirit. 

But,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  nevertheless  true, 
that  just  at  the  present  moment  more  interesr  seems 
to  be  taken  in  the  future  condition  of  the  heathen 
than  in  their  present  state.  Even  intelligent  Chris- 
tians seem  to  be  more  anxious  to  speculate  in  refer- 
ence to  their  condition  in  the  next  world,  than  to 
ascertain  the  actual  facts  connected  with  their  present 
life.  "  The  fate  of  the  heathen  "  is  a  theme  which 
profoundly  interests  the  religious  public,  and  you 
would  no  doubt  think  that  I  made  a  serious  omission 
if  I  did  not  notice  it  this  evening.  I  have  no  wish 
to  evade  it,  but  you  must  allow  me  to  protest  against 
the  impatient  urgency  with  which  this  discussion  is 
usually  pressed.  It  is  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the 
New  Testament.  God  would  have  us  open  our  eyes 
to  the  facts  of  the  present,  rather  than  speculate  about 
the  future,  or  concentrate  our  attention  upon  a  distant 
future,  even  apart  from  a  spirit  of  speculation.  The 
pervading  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  is  that  of 
intense  interest  in  the  facts  of  our  present  life.  Sal- 
vation is  a  present  salvation  from  present  sin,  rather 
than  from  a  future  hell.  The  heathen  in  Paul's  day 
listened  to  a  very  simple  gospel  of  present  deliver- 
ance, and  no  room  was  left  for  questions  about  their 
fate  as  distinct  from  the  fate  of  other  people.     The 


82  Missionary  Addresses. 

early  Christians  seem  to  have  been  well  content  to 
leave  the  judgment  of  men  and  nations  to  him  to 
whom  it  belonged,  and  applied  themselves  diligently 
to  the  work  of  saving  all  men  from  sin  and  death. 

But  while  protesting  against  the  distorted  shape  in 
which  this  question  is  presented  I  have  no  wish  to 
evade  it.  When  I  first  went  to  India  I  formed  a 
harsh  judgment  of  the  people  whom  I  first  met,  and 
could  see  little  hope  in  their  future.  For  instance, 
not  one  among  them  seemed  to  observe  an  ordinary 
standard  of  truth.  They  would  deviate  from  the 
truth,  often  without  any  concern  whatever,  and  when 
I  remembered  the  doom  of  "  all  liars "  their  fate 
seemed  sealed  forever.  As  time  passed,  however,  I 
learned  to  discriminate  more  wisely,  and  to  shrink 
from  rash  judgment  in  a  case  involving  such  awful 
interests.  I  began  to  notice,  too,  that  while  the  mul- 
titude seemed  bent  on  evil  ways,  the  people  themselves 
drew  a  line  of  distinction  between  good  and  bad  men. 
I  would  here  and  there  meet  one  who  by  common 
consent  would  be  called  a  good  man.  He  would  not 
be  exact  in  speaking  the  truth,  but  the  general  rule 
of  his  life  was  that  he  preferred  good  to  evil,  chose 
good  ways  rather  than  bad  ways,  or,  in  other  words, 
loved  light  rather  than  darkness.  Such  men  were 
few,  but  they  could  be  found,  and  when  found  would 
be  respected,  and  trusted,  and  loved. 

My  next  step  was  to  remember  that  God  would 
judge  his  creatures  not  by  a  common  absolute  stand- 
ard, but  by  the  measure  of  light  which  each  receives. 
In  exact  proportion  to  the  amount  given  will  be  the 
amount  required.  The  standard  of  truthfulness  even 
may  differ  in  the  case  of  different  individuals.    "  Lies 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         83 

of  courtesy  "  are  not  unknown  in  Christian  lands,  and 
are  not  regarded  by  a  polite  Oriental  as  in  the  faintest 
degree  criminal.  No  man  is  or  can  be  absolutely 
truthful,  and  we  who  allow  prejudice  to  warp  our 
statements,  or  fail  to  curb  imagination  at  times,  or  sin 
by  careless  speaking,  need  to  be  slow  in  setting  up 
the  standard  by  which  the  heathen  are  to  be  judged. 
For  my  own  part,  I  learned  in  time  to  recognize 
among  the  heathen  those  wThose  word  I  trusted,  and 
who  could  be  depended  upon  in  any  clear  case  of 
right  and  wrong  to  adhere  to  the  truth.  They  had 
but  little  light,  but,  such  as  itwTas,  they  preferred  it  to 
darkness.  Now  we  have  only  to  remember  that  men 
are  condemned,  not  for  rejecting  a  personal  Saviour, 
but  for  loving  darkness  rather  than  light,  and  the  dif- 
ficulty, of  which  so  much  has  been  made  recently,  at 
once  vanishes.  "  This  is  the  condemnation,  that  light 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  love  darkness  rather 
than  light."  Men  and  women  in  heathen  lands,  one 
and  all,  receive  a  measure  of  light.  They  all  know 
the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  between 
good  and  evil,  although  they  do  not  sharply  draw  a  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  two.  They  do  not  get 
this  moral  discrimination  from  their  false  systems,  but 
the  Holy  Spirit  writes  it  upon  their  hearts.  Hence 
they  have  no  more  urgent  need  of  a  second  probation 
than  the  mass  of  those  living  in  Christian  lands. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  the  number  of  those  rela- 
tively good,  such  as  I  have  described,  is  very,  very 
small,  and  hence  practically  we  must  give  up  the 
heathen  as  lost.  Does  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  the 
same  remark  might  be  made  about  the  people  of 
Chicago  ?    A  veil  of  awTf  ul  mystery  hangs  over  every 


S±  Missionary  Addresses. 

glimpse  which  we  can  get  of  human  life,  past,  pres- 
ent and  future  ;  and  yet  I  know  no  problem  connected 
with  our  future  which  wears  darker  hues,  or  is 
shrouded  in  greater  mystery,  than  some  of  the  ques- 
tions which  confront  us  in  our  every -day  life.  A 
thousand  questions  press  upon  us  for  answers  at  every 
turn,  in  the  presence  of  which  the  whole  world  stands 
dumb.  God's  word  sheds  light  upon  our  own  path- 
way, but  does  not  assist  us  in  prying  into  all  the 
mysteries  which  veil  the  future  of  the  human  race. 
We  know  that  sin  works  ruin,  that  its  fruit  is  death, 
and  that  the  stars  in  their  courses  do  not  move  more 
resistlessly  onward  than  punishment  follows  in  the 
pathway  of  transgression  and  ruin  in  the  wake  of  sin. 
We  know,  too,  that  in  the  clearer  light  of  the  final 
day  God  will  vindicate  his  ways  in  the  presence  of  a 
gazing  universe,  and  we  can  well  afford  to  wait  for 
the  revelations  which  God  is  reserving  for  that  great 
day.  The  Christian  believer  who  sits  at  the  Master's 
feet  has  a  faith  which  does  not  so  much  solve  mys- 
teries as  penetrates  beyond  them.  A  lady  who  had 
passed  through  a  severe  struggle  with  skepticism 
emerged  into  clear  sunshine  when  she  found  Christ. 
Her  doubts  and  difficulties  all  vanished  as  if  in  a  mo- 
ment. A  friend  asked  her,  "  Have  you  solved  all  the 
difficulties  which  troubled  you?"  "No,"  was  her 
noble  reply,  "  but  I  seem  to  see  beyond  them."  So 
may  we  all  do.  We  cannot  fathom  all  mysteries,  but 
we  need  not  put  out  our  eyes  because  we  cannot  see 
every  thing  at  a  single  glance. 

As  a  missionary  I  look  upon  the  present  state  of 
the  heathen  world  as  deplorable  in  the  extreme.  I 
have  and    can    have  no    sympathy  with  the  notion 


The  Moral  State  of  the  Heathen.         85 

which  prevails  in  many  quarters  that  the  heathen  are 
in  no  special  danger.  I  find  the  word  perish  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  I  see  immortal  souls  perishing 
before  my  eyes  every  day  I  live.  The  man  who  does 
not  see  them  needs  to  have  his  eyes  anointed,  and 
that  speedily.  There  is  hope,  there  is  salvation  for 
the  heathen  nations  and  for  sinners  every-where,  but 
it  is  not  found  in  speculating  about  their  future  or 
founding  hope  upon  guess-work.  Whatever  may 
happen  in  eternity,  there  is  hope  and  help  now  for  all 
men.  Our  duty  is  plain;  our  work  is  before  us. 
Dark  as  is  the  outlook  to-day,  a  brighter  day  has  al- 
ready dawned,  and  the  time  is  hastening  when  all 
the  nations  will  walk  in  the  light  of  God. 


86  Missionary  Addresses. 


MISSIONARY  SERVICE  AS  A  CAREER. 

THE  subject  announced  for  this  address  may  pos- 
sibly have  given  you  some  surprise.  Through- 
out the  previous  addresses  I  have  steadily  maintained 
that  Christian  workers  have  no  right  of  choice,  and 
should  have  no  concern  in  reference  to  the  particular 
employment  which  falls  to  their  lot.  The  Lord  of 
the  vineyard  himself  sends  forth  the  laborers  and 
assigns  to  each  his  special  task,  and  hence  it  may 
seem  that  a  discussion  of  the  character  of  the  service 
is  somewhat  out  of  place  at  the  close  of  addresses  in 
which  such  a  view  is  upheld.  That,  however,  is  by 
no  means  the  case.  No  good  work  ought  to  be  mis- 
represented or  needlessly  misunderstood.  Much  harm 
may  be  done  to  the  work  itself  by  depriving  it  of 
the  sympathy,  good-will  and  hearty  support  which 
otherwise  would  be  given  to  it.  Intelligent  Chris- 
tians wish  to  give  their  money  in  aid  of  the  most  de- 
serving objects  within  their  reach,  and  sincere  young 
men  and  women  are  often,  in  a  large  measure,  guided 
in  their  decision  of  duty  by  the  representations  made 
to  them  of  the  work  for  which  their  services  are 
asked.  Asa  missionary  myself  I  feel  something  like 
a  godly  jealousy  for  the  reputation  of  the  service.  I 
regard  the  great  missionary  army  of  the  world  to-day 
as  composed  of  as  noble  men  and  women  as  are  to  be 
found  in  the  world.  I  regard  the  enterprise  in  which 
they  are  embarked  as  the  grandest  ever  committed 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  87 

into  the  hands  of  mortal  man,  and  as  I  honor  the 
workers  and  the  work,  so  I  must  be  permitted  to  clear 
away  some  mistaken  impressions  which  prevail  too 
widely  in  regard  to  the  true  character  of  this  service. 
The  popular  notion  which  has  long  prevailed  with 
regard  to  the  missionary  service  is  that  it  is  a  good 
work,  carried  on  by  good  men  and  women,  who  work 
with  good  aims  and  accomplish  good  results;  but 
that  it  is  a  very  simple  work,  requiring  a  very  moder- 
ate grade  of  talent  in  the  workers,  and  having  noth- 
ing in  its  modest  routine  to  challenge  a  high  order  of 
courage,  or  to  call  forth  the  best  energies  of  those  en- 
gaged in  it.  A  little  hut  with  a  palm-tree  near  the 
door,  a  group  of  half-clad  and  tawny  children  under 
a  small  arbor,  and  a  benevolent-looking  missionary 
teaching  them  out  of  a  spelling-book,  make  up  the 
outline  of  the  picture  with  which  missionary  life  is 
popularly  identified  in  the  minds  of  many,  including 
often  intelligent  persons.  Young  men  of  promise 
are  often  urged  not  to  sacrifice  their  talents  in  a 
service  so  far  beneath  their  merits.  They  are  told 
that  scholarship  and  culture  would  be  thrown  away 
in  such  a  field,  and  to  many  it  seems  like  absolute 
folly  to  take  a  man  from  the  pulpit  of  a  cultured  city 
church,  and  put  him  down  under  a  palm-tree  on  a 
tropical  island,  or  in  an  obscure  hamlet  on  a  distant 
mountain  slope.  I  have  myself  heard  such  a  pro- 
ceeding stigmatized  as  a  living  burial,  and  perhaps 
the  general  impression,  even  at  the  present  day,  with 
the  majority  of  intelligent  persons  is  that,  at  the 
very  best,  life  in  the  foreign  mission  field  involves  a 
great  deal  of  sacrifice  to  young  men  of  talent,  and 
offers  nothing  better  than  a  quiet,  uneventful,  though 


S8  Missionary  Addresses. 

good  and  useful  career  in  some  obscure  corner  of  the 
earth.  I  need  not  say  that  I  utterly  repudiate  this 
whole  idea.  I  have  long  counted  myself  fortunate 
and  honored  and,  I  may  add,  blessed,  in  having  been 
allowed  a  place  in  the  missionary  ranks  and  a  post  in 
the  great  mission  field,  with  an  opportunity  to  work 
for  God  under  circumstances  which  give  better  prom- 
ise of  abiding  results  than  perhaps  could  have  been 
found  in  any  other  part  of  the  wide  world. 

In  trying  to  remove  this  misconception  let  me  first 
of  all  remind  you  that  all  heathen  people  are  not  by 
any  means  mental  babes.  The  young  missionary  who 
goes  to  India  goes  to  a  people  whose  leaders  had 
attained  a  high  grade  of  culture  a  thousand,  or  pos- 
sibly two  thousand  years  before  our  own  ancestors 
had  emerged  from  barbarism.  He  goes  among  a 
people  whose  sacred  scriptures  rank  in  point  of  an- 
tiquity with  our  own,  and  are  written  in  a  language 
much  more  polished,  and  a  great  deal  more  fully  de- 
veloped, than  the  ancient  Hebrew,  in  which  our  own 
earliest  Scriptures  were  given  to  the  world.  If  the 
Indian  people  have  not  maintained  the  high  promise 
with  which  their  ancestors  first  appeared  upon  the 
world's  stage,  they  have  nevertheless  preserved  dis- 
tinct marks  of  the  ancient  genius  of  their  race,  and 
the  youth  who  goes  to  them  with  a  feeling  of  con- 
tempt for  their  mental  capacity  will  probably  have 
this  delusion  dispelled  somewhat  rudely  before  he  has 
been  long  in  contact  with  them.  The  case  will  be 
very  similar  if  he  goes  to  China,  or  Japan,  or  any  part 
of  the  Buddhist  world. 

But  the  popular  idea  to  which  I  first  alluded  has 
reference  chiefly  to  the  more  barbarous  heathen  races. 


Missionary  Seevice  as  a  Career.  89 

The  old  notion  was  that  all  idolaters  were  necessarily 
ignorant  and  degraded.  This  is  by  no  means  the  case 
every-where,  but  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  mission- 
ary who  goes  to  Africa  will  find  himself  in  the  midst  of 
a  barbarous  people  whose  religious  notions  are  of  the 
most  primitive  kind,  and  who  may  be  supposed  to  re- 
quire religious  teachers  of  only  very  moderate  ability. 
With  regard,  however,  to  this  whole  misconception, 
let  me  say  here,  once  for  all,  that  the  missionary  makes 
a  great  mistake  who  puts  too  low  an  estimate  upon 
the  natural  abilities  of  any  members  of  our  common 
human  family.  The  human  mind,  however  sluggish 
it  may  be  in  the  abnormal  state  into  which  dense  and 
ignorant  heathenism  plunges  it,  is  by  no  means  dull 
and  stupid  when  once  fully  aroused.  The  ignorant 
barbarian  ceases  to  be  a  child  in  thought  when  once 
his  mind  begins  to  lay  hold  of  the  mighty  problems 
which  cluster  around  the  most  primary  conceptions 
of  a  supreme  God  and  of  an  eternal  life  beyond  the 
grave.  He  has  a  thousand  questions  to  ask,  and  he  is 
not  satisfied  with  the  evasive  answers  which  might 
perhaps  silence,  without  instructing,  little  children. 
The  Christian  world,  only  about  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  received  a  striking  and  certainly  a  very 
startling  illustration  of  the  danger  which  attends  the 
sending  of  inferior  or  unsound  men  to  heathen  tribes, 
even  though  not  far  removed  from  the  domain  of 
barbarism.  You  have  all  heard  the  story  of  the  late 
Bishop  Colenso,  whose  faith  in  his  own  Scriptures  was 
almost  wholly  overthrown  by  the  questions  of  an  in- 
telligent Zulu  convert.  The  learned  bishop  was  not 
only  unable  to  answer  questions  proposed  to  him  by 
this  recent  convert  from  African  barbarism,  but  was 


00  Missionary  Addresses. 

actually  constrained  to  give  up  his  own  confidence  in 
the  historic  value  of  the  books  which  he  had  always 
before  regarded  as  the  writings  of  Moses.  Those 
who  defend  the  policy  of  sending  third-rate  mission- 
aries out  to  heathen  lands,  should  ponder  well  the 
extraordinary  failure  of  this  learned  and  in  some 
respects  able  Anglican  bishop  while  working  among 
a  people  who  had  never  known  the  use  of  letters  be- 
fore becoming  Christians. 

But  even  if  we  were  to  concede  that  all  the  heathen 
were  like  so  many  children,  and  that  for  several  gen- 
erations to  come  they  will  remain  like  children,  it 
does  not  follow  that  the  missionary  sent  to  them  need 
only  be  a  man  of  moderate  ability.  It  is  a  very  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  children  and  childlike  adults 
can  be  successfully  taught  or  governed  by  inferior 
persons  as  well  as  by  those  specially  fitted  for  such 
duties.  It  is  well  known  by  those  who  have  given 
special  attention  to  the  subject  that  it  requires  a 
higher  order  of  genius  to  govern  small  children  than 
older  ones,  and  the  same  remark  is  true  in  regard  to 
teaching  them.  A  similar  mistake  is  widely  enter- 
tained with  regard  to  what  is  called  childhood  liter- 
ature. It  is  assumed  that  almost  any  person  can 
write  a  book  good  enough  to  take  its  place  among  the 
thousands  of  worthless  publications  which  are  put 
forth  in  the  name  of  our  little  ones,  but  those  who 
really  possess  the  high  gift  of  being  able  to  speak 
through  the  printed  page  to  the  little  folks  are  few 
indeed,  and  deserve  a  great  deal  more  fame  than  they 
have  usually  acquired.  The  successful  writer  of 
stories  for  children  is  as  much  superior  to  the  popular 
novelist  as  General  Grant  was  superior  to  a  second- 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  91 

rate  cavalry  raider.  Hans  Christian  Andersen,  for 
instance,  was  a  man  of  a  finer  and  higher  order  of 
gen  ins  by  far  than  Wilkie  Collins  or  any  sensational 
writer  of  his  popular  but  worthless  class.  I  recently 
met  with  a  statement  in  an  English  review  which 
strikingly  sustained  this  opinion.  The  writer  re- 
marked that  in  all  the  range  of  literature  no  higher 
genius  was  required  than  that  which  could  produce 
such  a  book  as  the  very  simple  little  story  known  as 
Alice  in  Wonderland /  and  yet  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  nine  tenths  of  those  who  have  read  that  sin- 
gular little  book  have  in  their  own  minds  put  it  down 
as  a  hastily  written  production  of  some  ordinary  per- 
son, and  a  work  which  could  be  easily  imitated  by 
any  one  familiar  with  the  writing  of  stories  for  chil- 
dren. Those  who.  have  had  experience,  however,  with 
teaching  children,  or  writing  for  them,  or  governing 
them,  or,  in  short,  who  have  taken  any  pains  to  inter- 
pret childhood  as  it  is,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  under- 
standing how  true  such  a  remark  really  is.  You  see, 
then,  that  whether  we  look  at  the  ignorant  and  bar- 
barous tribes  of  Africa,  or  the  degraded  islanders  of 
some  of  the  groups  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  or  the  Indian 
Archipelago,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  civilized  and 
intelligent  Buddhists,  Brahmins,  or  Mohammedans 
of  Asia,  in  any  and  every  case  we  need  workers  who 
are  able  to  deal  with  men  ;  workers  who  would  be  able 
to  succeed  in  a  country  like  America  or  England;' 
workers  who  can  stand  up  in  the  presence  of  any 
people  of  the  world,  and  quit  themselves  like  men  in 
any  moral  contest  in  which  they  may  become  engaged. 
It  would  be  well  for  those  who  plead  for  the  policy 
of  sending  half-taught  school-teachers — men  and 
7 


92  Missionary  Addresses. 

women  hardly  competent  to  take  charge  of  the  lowest 
grade  of  a  common  school  in  our  American  States — 
out  into  the  heathen  world  as  missionaries,  to  remem- 
ber that  some  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  century  have 
not  thought  it  beneath  them  to  go  to  the  lowest  and 
most  difficult  parts  of  the  mission-field ;  I  mean,  to 
work  among  the  barbarous  heathen  tribes.  Few 
names  of  the  ninteenth  century  have  become  more 
illustrious  than  that  of  David  Livingstone,  and  yet  this 
great  man  did  not  think  that  he  had  found  an  occupa- 
tion below  his  .actual  merit  when,  with  chalk  and  black- 
board, he  laboriously  toiled  with  ignorant  Kafir  and 
Hottentot  negroes,  to  make  them  understand  the  use 
of  letters  as  a  preliminary  step  to  teaching  them  how 
to  read.  Other  men,  perhaps  really  as  great  in  genius, 
and  certainly  superior  in  scholarship  and  general  cult- 
ure, have  devoted  themselves  in  other  fields  to  work 
quite  as  rudimentary,  without  a  single  thought  of  the 
work  beinir  beneath  them,  or  of  their  education  or 
culture  having  been  thrown  away.  Such  men  com- 
prehend, what  other  men  with  smaller  souls  and  in- 
ferior culture,  perhaps,  never  can  comprehend,  fhat 
genuine  culture  is  never  thrown  away ;  and  that  the 
place  of  honor  in  the  field  of  Christian  labor  is  not 
determined  according  to  the  standards  of  a  world 
which  is  ruled  by  short-sighted  selfishness.  Had 
David  Livingstone  thought  himself  too  good  or  too 
great  for  the  elementary  work  which  he  undertook, 
and  so  successfully  accomplished,  in  the  earliest  days 
of  his  missionary  career,  he  would  have  been  alto- 
gether unfit  for  the  grand  achievements  with  which 
God  honored  him  later  in  life.  In  nine  cases  out  of 
ten  the  place  of  honor  among  Christian  workers  is 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  93 

the  ordinary  place ;  the  place  which,  according  to  the 
world's  standard,  every  young  man  would  try  to 
shirk.  The  road  to  success  in  the  mission  field,  as  in 
every  other  sphere  of  noble  moral  achievement,  is  not 
a  highway  of  ease,  but  a  pathway  through  the  midst 
of  downright  earnest  toil,  of  unselfish  labor  for  the 
good  of  those  who  are  the  most  needy  of  perhaps  all 
the  human  race. 

Let  me  now  call  your  attention  to  several  advan- 
tages which  the  missionary  possesses  over  his  brethren 
in  the  home  field,  both  in  the  position  which  he  oc- 
cupies and  in  the  opportunities  which  are  afforded  him 
for  accomplishing  good  and  great  results.  In  the  first 
place,  nearly  every  missionary  is,  or,  at  least,  may  be 
if  he  chooses,  a  founder.  He  has  before  him  a  wide 
field,  a  field,  indeed,  so  very  wide  that  to  him  it  is 
practically  boundless.  He  goes  where  the  foot  of  a 
Christian  laborer  has  never  before  pressed  the  soil,  he 
enters  village  after  village  where  no  Christian  church 
has  been  organized,  and  he  is  permitted  in  the  course 
of  an  active  lifetime  to  found  church  after  church 
and  school  after  school.  He  may  be  permitted  to 
establish  a  press,  or  an  orphanage,  or  a  hospital,  or  a 
dispensary,  or  an  asylum,  or  some  other  agency  con- 
nected with  the  missionary  enterprise. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  may  be  with  others,  but  to 
myself  there  has  always  seemed  something  like  a 
strong  fascination  in  the  laying  down  of  abiding 
foundations.  I  think,  too,  that  there  are  few  Chris- 
tian minds  which  are  not  susceptible  to  a  feeling  of  the 
same  kind.  Let  any  one,  for  instance,  go  out  a  month 
or  two  hence  and  plant  a  tree,  and  as  he  does  so  think 
of  the  fruit  which  other  hands  will  gather  from  its 


94  Missionary  Addresses. 

branches  after  he  is  dead,  or  the  shelter  which  weary 
passers-by  will  find  beneath  its  foliage  long  after  his 
weary  hands  are  at  rest  forever,  and  if  he  can  do  so 
without  finding  intense  satisfaction  in  the  "thought,  he 
certainly  differs  from  most  members  of  the  common 
race  to  which  he  belongs.  I  do  not  wonder  that 
among  the  many  works  of  merit  practiced  in  India, 
the  planting  of  a  tree,  or  the  opening  of  a  fountain, 
or  the  digging  of  a  well,  or  the  construction  of  a  tank, 
or  similar  works  by  which  generations  of  the  distant 
future  may  be  blessed,  all  occupy  a  place  of  high 
honor,  for  they  all  appeal  to  a  principle  which  is 
strong  within  us  ;  and  although  the  meritorious  value 
of  such  works  may  be  all  wrong,  yet  the  thought 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  such  enterprises  is  not  a  bad 
one.  It  is  a  noble  ambition  to  wish  to  do  some- 
thing which  will  make  others  happier  and  better  long 
after  we  have  been  forgotten  on  earth.  As  with 
founding,  so  with  building.  Paul  was  very  sensitive 
with  regard  to  building  upon  foundations  laid  by 
other  men,  and  yet  he  recognized  the  fact  that  such  a 
division  of  labor  must  exist  in  the  Christian  Church  ; 
that  while  some  men  would  put  down  the  foundation 
it  would  be  left  to  others  to  build  thereon.  He 
pointed  out  also  the  necessity  of  having  wise  master- 
builders  for  this  department  of  labor.  In  all  parts  of 
the  universal  church  to-day  we  may  see  this  double 
work  going  on  ;  some  are  founding,  while  some  are 
building  upon  foundations  laid  down  for  them.  If  it  is 
a  noble  aspiration,  and  one  which  appeals  to  a  sanctified 
ambition,  to  desire  to  lay  foundations,  it  is  scarcely  a 
less  worthy  aspiration  to  desire  to  carry  forward  a 
building  which  has  been  begun  by  other  hands.     The 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  05 

mission  field  furnishes  constant  and  grand  opportuni- 
ties for  this  kind  of  labor.  Enterprises  of  many  kinds 
meet  the  young  missionary  at  the  very  threshold  of 
his  work,  and  he  is  made  to  feel  constantly  that  he  is 
building  for  years  and  generations  yet  far  in  the  fu- 
ture. There  is  a  feeling  of  profound  satisfaction 
which  attends  all  labor  of  this  kind.  There  is  an 
element  of  permanency  in  it  which  is  so  often  absent 
in  other  spheres  of  human  effort.  Nothing  could  be 
more  baffling  and  utterly  wearisome  than  to  be  com- 
pelled to  spend  years  in  beating  the  air ;  and  yet 
among  the  multitude  of  earth's  great  toilers  very 
many  can  be  found  who  seem  to  be  engaged  in  this 
kind  of  unremitting  effort.  They  struggle  and  toil 
and  work,  often  painfull}7,  and  yet  seem  to  accomplish 
nothing.  There  is  no  element  of  permanency  in  any 
thing  which  they  do.  They  die,  and  all  their  efforts 
seem  to  be  buried  in  the  grave  with  them.  A  month 
has  hardly  passed  away  until  every  trace  of  their  ex- 
istence in  this  world  has  utterly  vanished.  They  have 
not  founded  any  thing,  or  built  any  thing,  or  planted 
any  thing,  wdiich  lives  or  abides.  They  have  not 
made  human  hearts  better,  or  human  lives  happier,  or 
human  homes  brighter,  by  their  stay  among  their  fel- 
fow-men,  and  so  they  die,  and  accordingly  are  speedily 
forgotten.  If  any  man  in  the  mission  field  leads  such 
a  career,  or  leaves  behind  him  such  a  record,  to  be  al- 
most absolutely  effaced  in  a  single  day,  the  fault  is 
altogether  his  own.  His  opportunities  are  so  grand 
that  if  he  neither  builds  nor  founds  the  fault  must 
lie  wholly  at  his  own  door. 

I  hope,  my  young  brethren,  that  you  appreciate 
what  I  have  just  been  trying  to  put  before  you.     1 


9G  Missionary  Addresses. 

am  not  appealing  to  your  ambition  as  such,  but  to  a 
nobler  and  a  very  much  higher  motive.  I  believe  that 
the  constraining  love  of  Christ  in  the  unselfish  heart 
will  prompt  you  to  seek  the  opportunities  of  which  I 
speak,  and  that  it  becomes  as  natural  for  the  Christian 
laborer  to  incorporate  an  element  of  permanency  into 
his  labor,  as  it  is  for  the  coral  insects  to  build  their 
shining  reefs,  or  for  the  vine  to  clothe  itself  with 
clusters  of  purple  fruit.  I  have  observed,  sometimes 
with  deep  concern,  what  seems  to  be  an  increasing  am- 
bition on  the  part  of  young  ministers  in  this  country  to 
win  a  position  of  a  very  different  character.  The  stand- 
ard of  success  which  is  recognized  by  perhaps  the 
majority  of  ministers  in  this  country  at  the  present  day 
is  to  my  mind  a  very  false  one.  The  young  minister 
counts  himself  happy,  and  his  friends  regard  him  as 
successful  in  the  highest  degree,  if  he  secures  the  pas- 
torate of  a  church  whose  foundation  has  been  laid  and 
whose  walls  have  been  built  by  other  hands.  He  has 
not  done  a  stroke  of  labor,  he  has  not  laid  a  stone  in  the 
foundation,  or  a  brick  in  the  wall,  either  of  the  material 
building  or  the  spiritual  structure  which  it  so  fitly 
represents.  The  very  salary  which  is  regarded  as  a 
conspicuous  element  of  the  success  which  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  obtained,  has  been  won  for  him  by 
other  laborers.  He  takes  possession  of  his  pulpit  and 
is  happy  if  he  can  command  a  large  audience  at  the 
Sunday  service.  He  holds  what  is  given  him,  and  at 
once  begins  to  look  for  a  similar  but  still  better  posi- 
tion, to  be  secured  at  the  earliest  possible  date.  In 
due  time  he  succeeds  in  his  wishes,  and  is  inducted 
into  another  pulpit  under  precisely  similar  circum- 
stances, and  thus  he  goes  through  life,  always  entering 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  07 

into  other  men's  labors,  always  occupying  pulpits 
erected  by  other  hands,  preaching  to  congregations 
gathered  by  others,  and  enjoying  the  fruits  of  other 
men's  toil.  He  regards  himself  and  is  regarded  by 
all  his  friends  as  successful,  but  probably  as  he  nears 
the  end  of  his  course  he  begins  to  discover  what 
faithful  friends  should  have  pointed  out  to  him  at  the 
outset,  that  such  a  career  at  its  best  estate  is  but  a 
long  series  of  conspicuous  failures.  He  has  neither 
founded  nor  built  any  thing,  but  has  simply  succeeded 
in  diligently  entering  into  other  men's  labors  and 
eating  the  fruit  thereof.  You  have  all  no  doubt  read 
Professor  Drummond's  well  known  Natural  Law  in 
the  Spiritual  ^Vorld.  If  so,  you  will  remember  his, 
striking  illustration  of  the  hermit-crab,  the  little 
creature  which  refuses  to  construct  its  own  shell  but 
takes  possession  of  a  cast-off  shell  of  some  other  little 
fellow-creature  of  the  sea,  in  which  it  can  live  and 
grow  at  its  pleasure.  The  little  crab  finds  the  home 
which  it  seeks,  but  nature  punishes  it  by  degrading 
it,  as  every  species  of  parasite  in  the  world  is  degraded. 
The  minister  of  the  present  day  who  is  regarded  as 
attaining  a  high  ideal — I  mean  in  the  judgment  of 
the  popular  mind — always  seems  to  me  to  be  but  a 
conspicuous  illustration  of  the  hermit-crab.  He  con- 
structs nothing  for  himself,  but  seeks  and  clings  to 
that  which  some  one  else  has  left,  and  instead  of  being 
brilliantly  successful  is  really  but  a  conspicuous  illus- 
tration of  the  law  which  degrades  the  ecclesiastical 
parasite  as  relentlessly  as  it  does  the  little  crab  by  the 
ocean  shore.  He  never  really  attains  to  a  high  ideal, 
although  engaged  in  the  noblest  service  which,  per- 
haps, engrosses  the  energies   of  any  body  of  living 


OS  Missionary  Addresses. 

men.  He  achieves  little  or  nothing,  and  at  the  close 
of  life  discovers  to  his  dismay  that  he  has  really 
accomplished  nothing,  and  is  leaving  behind  him  no 
living,  growing  work  of  any  kind  to  bear  witness  to 
his  labors  after  he  is  gone. 

I  am  glad  to  assure  you,  my  dear  young  brethren, 
that  the  missionary  service  can  set  before  you  a  higher 
ideal  than  this.  I  think  I  may  add  that  it  will  spread 
no  such  snare  for  your  feet  as  that  I  have  just  described. 
It  will  give  you  abundant  opportunities  for  founding 
and  building  in  places  where  other  laborers  have  not 
preceded  you,  and  where  you  can  always  be  happy  in 
the  assurance  that  you  are  preparing  the  way  for  men 
to  follow  you  who  will  complete  the  structures  which 
you  commence.  If  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive,  it  is  certainly  more  blessed  to  prepare  the 
way  for  others  than  to  follow  in  a  way  which  has  been 
prepared  fcr  you.  It  will  develop  a  nobler  manhood 
in  you,  it  will  teach  you  to  bring  all  your  best  resources 
into  active  exercise,  it  will  bring  to  you  a  knowledge 
of  the  luxury  to  be  found  in  living  and  working  in 
the  name  and  in  the  spirit  of  your  ever  blessed  Mas- 
ter, and  it  will  deliver  you  at  a  stroke  from  the 
wretched  heart-burnings  which  attend  upon  the  inter- 
minable rivalries  of  the  overcrowded  ministry  in 
your  native  land. 

There  is  another  feature  of  missionary  work  which 
further  illustrates  what  I  have  been  saying,  and  also  of- 
fers a  wide  range  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest  abilities 
and  best  culture  which  the  young  missionary  can  bring 
into  exercise.  I  refer  to  what  may  be  called  his 
administrative  work.  He  may  not  at  the  outset  have 
any  thing  to  do  in  this  particular  line,  but  as  soon  as 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  09 

he  begins  to  gather  converts  around  him  he  will  be 
called  upon  to  direct  the  labors  of  preachers  of  vari- 
ous grades,  colporteurs,  teachers,  and  other  laborers, 
such  as  are  always  needed  in  successful  mission  fields. 
In  our  older  missions — for  instance,  in  India,  as  at  pres- 
ent organized — a  presiding  elder  is  in  reality  more  like 
a  bishop,  than  like  a  presiding  elder  such  as  you  are 
familiar  with  here.  The  preacher  in  eacli  mission 
station  is  more  like  a  presiding  elder,  than  like  what 
you  in  tins  country  are  accustomed  to  call  preachers, 
or  ministers.  The  ordinary  missionary  whose  name 
figures  in  the  list  of  Conference  appointments,  has  in 
his  particular  station  five,  or  ten,  or  twenty  preach- 
ers working  under  his  direction,  each  of  whom  again 
will  have  from  one  to  ten  villages,  in  each  of  which 
will  be  found  organized  bands  of  Christians.  The 
presiding  elder  is  thus  in  reality  superintending  a 
group  of  districts,  rather  than  a  group  of  stations 
such  as  you  are  familiar  with  in  this  country.  The 
District  Conference  in  that  part  of  India  is  really 
a  much  more  important  assembly  than  the  Annual 
Conference.  But  it  is  not  merely  in  the  supervision 
of  these  numerous  preachers  and  scattered  congrega- 
tions that  the  missionary  has  opportunities  for  exer- 
cising his  administrative  ability,  but  he  has  schools  as 
well,  and  in  many  cases  his  responsibilities  as  super- 
intendent of  schools  are  hardly  less  weighty  than 
those  of  a  superintendent  in  any  of  your  flourishing 
towns  or  smaller  cities. 

There  is  still  another  phase  of  his  work  which  any 
zealous,  love-inspired  preacher  of  the  Word  may 
innocently  covet;  I  refer  to  the  opportunities  for 
leadership  which  he  enjoys.     It  is  one  thing  to  admin- 


100  Missionary  Addresses. 

ister  successfully  the  affairs  of  existing  churches;  it 
is  quite  another,  and,  as  I  venture  to  think,  a  much 
nobler  thing  to  lead  forward  a  body  of  Christian 
workers,  and,  winning  captives  from  the  hosts  of  sin 
and  Satan,  gather  them  into  churches  and  establish 
them  in  the  Christian  life.  In  all  the  mission  fields 
of  the  world  God  sets  before  the  willing  missionary 
magnificent  opportunities  for  this  kind  of  leadership. 
I  am  not  sure  that  the  very  idea  which  I  am  trying 
to  convey  to  you  has  not  become  obscured  to  a  great 
extent  in  this  country  ;  but  fifty  years  ago  our  fathers 
were  perfectly  familiar  with  it.  The  great  leaders 
during  the  first  two  generations  of  our  own  church 
life  were  all  militant  leaders,  and  while  some  of  them 
were  able  to  administer,  yet  their  most  enduring  fame, 
no  doubt,  rests  to  this  day  upon  their  achievements 
in  the  field  rather  than  upon  the  exercise  of  their 
administrative  functions.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
great  leaders  of  our  militant  hosts  may  yet  be  raised 
up  in  America,  but  present  indications  certainly  seem 
to  point  the  other  way.  In  the  mission  field,  how- 
ever, such  opportunities  are  found  in  every  direction, 
and  will  continue  to  be  found  for  at  least  centuries  to 
come.  I  would  not  appeal  to  a  vain  ambition,  and  I 
trust,  my  dear  brethren,  that  there  is  very  little  of 
such  ambition  lurking  in  your  hearts,  but  believ- 
ing, as  I  do,  that  the  heart  of  every  young  man  whose 
spirit  has  been  touched  with  living  flame  from  the 
Shekinah  of  the  upper  temple,  glows  with  an  intense 
desire  to  push  forward  to  the  front,  and  bear  a  part  in 
the  advance  movement  of  the  great  hosts  of  the  Cap- 
tain of  our  salvation,  I  think  it  but  right  to  point  out 
to  you  the  magnificent  opportunities  which  God  pre- 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  101 

pares  for  those  who  are  willing  to  embrace  them. 
There  are  victories  jet  to  be  won  which  will  far  tran- 
scend any  that  have  ever  been  achieved  in  the  past ; 
there  are  battle  rields  awaiting  ns  in  the  future  which 
will  call  for  more  stupendous  exertion,  for  greater 
sacrifices,  and,  perhaps,  for  even  greater  heroism  than 
any  which  have  been  witnessed  in  all  the  past  of  Chris- 
tian history.  You  should  count  yourselves  happy 
that  you  live  in  such  an  age,  and  that  such  magnificent 
opportunities  are  thus  set  before  you. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  work  of  founding,  and  build- 
ing, and  administering,  in  connection  with  labor  in  the 
foreign  field.  It  would  be  well  for  you,  however, 
not  to  limit  the  terms  founding  and  administering  to 
the  narrow  little  sphere  which  I  have  used  in  illustra- 
tion of  my  meaning.  Those  who  go  forth  into  the 
heathen  world  to  lay  foundations  and  to  build  thereon 
often  found  and  build  more  wisely  than  they  know. 
The  faithful  man  who  in  an  obscure  corner  of  a  dis- 
tant province  faithfully  labors  to  lay  the  foundation 
of  a  little  church  of  Christian  converts  is,  perhaps, 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  Christian  empire.  The 
little  districts  of  which  you  read  in  an  ordinary  mis- 
sionary report  from  India  or  China  are  in  reality  like 
so  many  of  your  American  States.  When  I  first 
went  to  India  I  was  posted  at  a  station  in  the  Him- 
alayas, in  a  mountain  district  inhabited  by  Hindus. 
It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  a  very  remote  station  in  a  re- 
mote part  of  the  world,  but  I  was  really  trying  to  plant 
Christianity  in  a  province  about  equal  in  population 
to  the  State  of  West  Virginia  as  it  is  to-day.  My 
second  station  was  in  a  still  more  remote  district,  but 
at  a  point  midway  between  two  provinces  about  equal 


102  Missionary  Addresses. 

in  extent  and  population  to  the  one  I  had  just  left. 
My  third  station  was  in  a  district  containing  nearly  a 
million  people.  My  fourth  was  in  a  city  containing 
250,000  inhabitants,  and  the  capital  of  a  province 
containing  11,000,000  people.  My  fifth  was  in  a 
city  of  800,000  inhabitants,  and  the  capital  of  a 
group  of  provinces  containing  no  less  than  60,000,000 
people.  I  have  thus  by  my  own  practical  experience 
fully  discovered  how  narrow  was  my  first  view  and 
how  mistaken  my  impression,  that  I  was  laboring  but 
for  a  little  group  of  remote  villagers  in  a  place  where 
very  great  results  could  not  be  expected,  and  where 
the  outer  world  could  never  feel  the  influence  of  the 
wrork  accomplished.  Long  ago  I  learned  fully  to 
appreciate  the  fact  that  wherever  I  went,  and  in  what- 
ever particular  spot  I  might  succeed  in  founding  and 
building  a  Christian  church,  I  was  working  for  mill- 
ions  rather  than  for  hundreds,  for  the  future  rather 
than  for  the  present,  and  for  an  empire  rather  than  a 
village. 

I  wish  I  could  impress  upon  your  minds  even  faintly 
an  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  field  which  God  has 
set  before  his  people.  India,  for  instance,  is  another 
Europe.  It  is  more  than  twice  as  populous  as  the 
Roman  Empire  was  when  Paul  and  Barnabas  sallied 
out  of  Antioch  to  enter  upon  the  missionary  work  of 
converting  the  then  known  world.  It  is  a  group  of 
nations  with  different  languages,  but  with  similar 
customs,  similar  religions,  and  many  features  of  a 
common* nationality,  and  yet  separated  by  influences 
which  have  thus  far  kept  them  from  blending  into 
one  mighty  empire.  That  which  neither  a  common 
faith,  nor  common  interests,  nor  military  power,  has 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  103 

ever  been  able  to  fully  accomplish,  will  be  done  by 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  the  caste  system 
shall  be  destroyed,  when  idols  shall  be  cast  away,  when 
Mohammedanism  shall  be  overthrown,  and  the  teem- 
ing millions  of  that  bright  land  become  the  servants 
of  a  common  Master,  these  separate  nationalities,  under 
the  fostering  and  beneficent  government  of  England, 
will  be  welded  into  one  mighty  empire  to  take  its 
place  among  the  great  empires  of  the  world.  The 
missionaries  of  India  have  thus  the  task  set  before 
them  of  building  up  a  spiritual  empire  such  as  the 
world  of  the  present  day  has  never  seen.  They  need 
to  be  men  of  purity  and  devotion  and  unselfish  love, 
of  ripe  experience  and  of  the  wisdom  which  cometh 
down  from  above.  They  need,  also,  to  be  men  of 
a  very  high  order  of  Christian  statesmanship.  In  all 
the  wide  world  there  is  no  field  of  Christian  activity 
which  calls  for  a  better  or  an  abler  class  of  workers  than 
the  India,  and,  I  may  as  well  add,  the  China,  of  to-day, 
and  nowhere  else  in  all  this  bustling,  active  world  can 
better  opportunities  be  found  for  young  men  and 
women  who  seek  not  for  ease  or  personal  comfort  or 
local  fame,  but  for  possibilities  of  the  most  extended 
and  most  enduring  usefulness.  The  very  angels  in 
heaven  might  almost  envy  those  of  you  whom  God 
may  honor  by  choosing  you  for  service  in  this  great 
field. 

A  career  in  the  missionary  field  is  one  which  angels 
might  envy  and  which  men  should  never  despise.  Its 
rewards  are  sometimes  in  the  future,  but  always  sure 
and  always  worthy  of  a  service  which  stands  second 
to  no  other  on  earth.  The  world  may  despise  it  or 
undervalue  it  for  a  few  years  longer,  but  a  century 


104  Missionary  Addresses. 

hence  even  the  world's  estimate  will  have  wholly 
changed.  The  change  which  has  taken  place  in  pub- 
lic opinion  in  the  century  now  nearing  its  close  can 
hardly  be  sufficiently  appreciated.  One  hundred 
years  ago  William  Carey  was  just  entering  upon  his 
first  pastorate,  and  the  great  missionary  movement  of 
our  day  had  not  yet  been  heard  of.  A  few  years 
later  Carey  turned  his  face  toward  the  East,  and 
entered  upon  what  seemed  the  wildest  and  most  hope- 
less project  of  that  worldly  era.  Theologians  opposed 
and  denounced  him,  traders  and  politicians  persecuted 
and  hindered  him,  the  protection  of  his  country's  flag 
was  denied  him,  the  heathen  misunderstood  him,  while 
his  own  countrymen  were  often  his  most  unrelenting 
enemies.  He  braved  dangers,  endured  hardships, 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  voice  of  obloquy  and  rid- 
icule which  ever  and  anon  reached  him  from  his 
native  land,  and  stood  bravely  at  the  post  where 
God's  own  hand  had  placed  him.  Denounced  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  ridiculed  in  the  Edinburgh 
Iieview  by  Sidney  Smith,  from  whom  he  received 
his  now  famous  title  of  "  consecrated  cobbler,"  and 
jeered  at  by  all  the  fashionable  world,  he  held  stead- 
fastly on  his  way,  and  lived  and  died  a  simple  mis- 
sionary of  Jesus  Christ.  But  long  before  his  death 
his  Master  had  vindicated  his  servant  even  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world.  He  lived  to  be  an  honored  guest  and 
a  trusted  adviser  in  the  vice-regal  palace  from  which 
the  edict  of  banishment  had  once  been  issued  against 
him.  He  won  the  confidence  of  the  people  for  whom 
he  lived  and  labored,  and  gained  the  esteem  of  his 
countrymen  among  whom  he  moved  as  a  venerated 
saint  of  the  Most  High.     As  old  age  drew  near  lion- 


Missionary  Service  as  a  Career.  105 

ors  began  to  cluster  thickly  around  him,  but  he  was 
still  a  simple  missionary  of  Jesus  Christ.  On  his 
tombstone  he  directed  that  this  couplet  should  be 
engraved : 

A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 
Into  thine  arms  I  fall ; 

and  the  words  expressed  the  spirit  of  the  man. 

Long  years  have  passed  since  the  death  of  William 
Carey,  but  each  year  has  only  added  luster  to  his 
fame.  The  very  names  of  his  former  persecutors, 
once  leaders  in  Calcutta  society,  would  have  long 
since  perished  but  for  their  connection  with  this  great 
man.  The  epithet  coined  by  Sydney  Smith  will  prob- 
ably survive  every  other  word  and  phrase  written  by 
that  popular  satirist,  who  in  future  centuries  will  only 
be  remembered  as  the  man  who  ridiculed  William 
Carey.  During  a  residence  of  a  dozen  years  in  Cal- 
cutta I  met  many  tourists  from  England  and  America. 
Among  them  all  I  recall  but  one  who  wished  to  see 
the  house  in  which  Macaulay  had  lived.  One  asked 
to  see  the  house  in  which  Thackeray  had  been  born, 
and  two  or  three  inquired  for  the  residence  of  War- 
ren Hastings.  But,  literally,  scores  upon  scores  have 
asked  to  be  led  to  the  grave  of  William  Carey,  and 
the  little  burying  ground  in  the  old  Danish  settlement 
of  Serampore  has  become  like  a  pilgrim's  shrine,  to 
which  Christian  men  and  women  come  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  No  man  ever  entered  a  more 
despised  service,  and  no  man  was  ever  more  signally 
honored  and  rewarded  by  the  service  to  which  lie 
gave  himself.  The  missionary's  calling  is  a  noble 
calling,  and  it  has  enlisted  the  service  of  a  long  line 


106  Missionary  Addresses. 

of  noble  men  and  women.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
ever  regret  that  a  humble  place  has  been  given  me 
among  men  so  noble  and  so  great. 

I  crave  no  higher  honor  than  to  retain  this  place, 
and  trust  that  God  will  permit  me  to  finish  my  course 
in  the  mission  field,  and  to  die  at  last  in  the  ranks  in 
which  I  have  long  counted  it  a  joy  to  serve.  The 
lowest  place  in  such  a  service  might  well  become  the 
object  of  an  angel's  envy.  Happy,  thrice  happy,  is 
the  young  man  who  is  chosen  of  God  for  it.  For 
such  a  signal  mark  of  the  divine  favor  he  should 
praise  God  evermore,  and  make  haste  to  consecrate 
all  his  ransomed  powers  and  all  his  earthly  days  to 
the  high  calling  with  which  God  has  honored  him. 
Among  those  who  listen  to  me  now  there  are,  I  trust, 
those  who  will  ere  very  long  be  called  and  enlisted 
for  this  noble  service.  Let  such  be  the  recipients  of 
no  man's  pity.  They  are  fortunate  and  favored  among 
the  sons  of  men.  They  have  a  happy  lot  and  a  joy- 
ous service  on  earth,  and  will  ever  be  numbered 
among  those  saints  whose  works  shall  follow  them  in 
the  everlasting  rest  above. 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  107 


THE  FAREWELL  COMMANDMENT. 

WE  are  all  familiar  with  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  New  Commandment,  and  the 
imperishable  words  in  which  they  are  expressed  meet 
our  gaze  in  almost  every  sanctuary  and  almost  every 
Christian  home.  It  is  right  that  this  should  be  so, 
and  yet  it  is  strange  that  another  commandment, 
equally  binding,  and  peculiarly  sacred  because  the 
last  command  of  our  Saviour  before  ascending  from 
Olivet,  should  have  been  almost  overlooked.  Before 
his  death  Jesus  had  spoken  of  the  great  work  of 
preaching  his  Gospel  among  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  and  after  his  resurrection  he  repeatedly  en- 
joined this  duty  upon  his  disciples.  The  very  brief 
and  fragmentary  record  which  we  have  of  his  sayings 
during  those  eventful  days  between  his  resurrection 
and  ascension  makes  it  clearly  evident  that  this  was 
kept  prominently  before  the  minds  of  the  disciples  to 
the  very  last.  On  the  evening  of  the  day  of  his 
resurrection  he  unfolded  this  great  plan  to  his  assem- 
bled disciples.  On  the  mountain  in  Galilee  he  en- 
joined it  as  a  solemn  duty  upon  them,  and  from  the 
brief  story  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  Acts  it  is  evi- 
dent that  this  was  the  subject  of  conversation  as  the 
Master  and  his  disciples  neared  the  crest  of  Olivet, 
over  which  the  cloud  was  already  hovering  which 
was  to  veil  him  forever  from  mortal  sight.  The  dis- 
ciples,  like  too  many  in  our  own  day,  were  eager  to 
8 


108  Missionary  Addresses. 

know  more  about  the  date  of  what  they  supposed  a 
lear  event,  but  Jesus  had  other  lessons  for  them. 
kt  Do  not  trouble  your  minds,"  he  said,  in  substance, 
"  with  such  matters ;  God  alone  knows  the  dates  of 
eternity.  Your  duty  is  practical  and  immediate. 
You  are  to  be  clothed  with  authority  and  power,  and 
are  to  witness  for  me,  and  of  me,  in  all  this  region 
round  about,  and  beyond  those  eastern  mountains, 
and  far  beyond  that  great  western  sea,  even  to  the  ut- 
termost part  of  the  earth."  Words  could  not  have 
been  uttered  under  more  solemn  and  impressive  cir- 
cumstances, and  this  farewell  commandment  of  our 
risen  Lord  and  Master  should  be  received  by  the  uni- 
versal Church  in  every  land  as  the  expression  of  an 
obligation  which  is  forever  binding,  which  takes  pre- 
cedence of  every  other  duty,  and  which  never  can  be 
laid  aside,  even  for  a  day,  till  the  original  commission 
shall  have  been  fully  executed.  It  is  an  obligation  to 
evangelize  the  world,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
nation  and  every  creature,  to  make  disciples  of,  or 
Christianize,  all  nations. 

If  we  carefully  examine  the  terms  of  this  com- 
mandment we  will  find  that  the  task  set  before  the 
Christian  world  is  a  striking  one  in  four  particulars : 

1.  It  is  world-embracing  in  its  extent.  All  the 
nations  of  the  earth  are  to  hear  the  joyful  sound  of 
the  Gospel.  The  little  kingdom  of  Solomon  had 
once  seemed  like  a  vast  realm  to  the  loyal  Hebrews, 
and  David's  son  was  regarded  as  a  mighty  monarch 
because  he  ruled  from  the  river  of  Egypt  to  the  end 
of  the  habitable  region  on  the  north-east ;  but  David's 
greater  Son  was  to  sway  his  scepter  over  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  wide  earth.     His  Gospel  was  to  be  pro- 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  109 

claimed  every-where,  and  lest  any  erring  disciples  in 
any  after  age  might  be  tempted  to  limit  the  commis 
sion  to  artificial  boundary  lines,  God's  word,  both 
before  and  after  Christ,  was  made  very  specific.  The 
King  seen  by  Daniel  in  the  night- vision  received  a 
kingdom  which  embraced  all  people,  nations,  and 
languages,  and  when  John,  who  was  the  Daniel  of  the 
New  Testament,  saw  the  angel  flying  in  mid-heaven 
having  the  everlasting  Gospel  to  preach,  it  was  for 
"  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people." 
Jesus  had  died  for  all  the  race,  and  his  message  of 
salvation  was  to  all  for  whom  he  had  died.  History 
tells  us  of  ethnic  religions,  but  God's  word  recognizes 
nothing  of  the  kind  ;  and  the  Christian  messenger  who 
goes  forth  in  his  Master's  name  dare  not  pass  any 
nation,  or  tribe,  or  family  by.  Christ  is  the  Saviour 
of  all  men,  and  Christianity  is  to  be  the  religion  of 
all  nations. 

2.  The  work  is  to  he  done  thoroughly.  Every 
creature  is  to  be  reached.  The  disposition  is  very 
general  in  our  day  to  assume  that  this  great  work 
will  have  been  accomplished  when  once  the  Gospel 
is  preached  in  a  town,  or  a  community,  or  a  province. 
Some  think  the  task  before  us  has  already  been 
almost  accomplished,  and  that  it  only  remains  to  push 
a  few  preachers  into  a  few  remote  regions,  so  that 
it  may  be  said  that  the  Gospel  is  preached  in  every 
country,  or  among  the  people  of  every  nation  on  the 
globe.  But  Jesus  meant  nothing  of  this  kind.  His 
language  is  very  specific,  "Preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature."  The  work  must  be  done  thoroughly. 
We  have  learned  in  our  day  to  use  the  word  "  preach" 
in  a  perfunctory  sense,  meaning  thereby  that  Christian 


110  Missionary  Addresses. 

preachers  shall  deliver  formal  addresses  at  certain 
times  and  in  certain  places ;  but  Jesus  meant  very 
much  more  than  this.  Every  creature  is  to  be  sought 
out,  and  the  message  sent  by  the  Saviour  is  to  be  so 
delivered  to  him  that  he  will  be  able  to  under- 
stand it,  and  intelligently  to  receive  it  or  reject  it. 
This  world  will  never  be  evangelized,  in  the  New 
Testament  sense  of  the  word,  till  it  is  done  in  this 
way,  and  we  must  not  for  a  moment  allow  ourselves 
to  dream  of  a  less  thorough  performance  of  our  duty 
than  this. 

I  must  confess  that  I  have  learned  to  listen  with  a 
certain  degree  of  misgiving  to  all  eloquent  talk  about 
giving  the  Gospel  to  millions,  or  tens  of  millions,  of 
human  beings.  Underlying  such  talk  too  often  will 
be  found  the  utterly  false  notion  of  giving  a  very 
little  Gospel  to  a  very  few  persons  among  the  mill- 
ions to  be  evangelized.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
forget  a  good  missionary  who  once  wrote  to  a  fellow- 
laborer  asking  him  not  to  enter  a  province  containing 
a  million  of  souls,  alleging  that  he  had  already  occu- 
pied the  field  by  sending  one  man  to  live  in  a  small 
town  within  its  limits.  This  is  trifling  with  duty  ; 
trifling  with  the  most  awful  duty  ever  committed  to 
mortal  hands.  The  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  is 
not  a  mockery.  It  is  offered  in  very  deed  to  every 
human  being.  It  cannot  be  carried  to  all  in  a  single 
day,  but  every  plan  we  form  should  contemplate  the 
fulfillment  of  this  duty  in  the  most  complete  sense  at 
the  earliest  possible  day. 

3.  It  is  to  be  executed  by  a  special  gift  of  power. 
For  some  strange  reason  the  fact  is  generally  over- 
looked that  the  original  promise  of  the  gift  of  power 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  Ill 

to  Christian  believers  was  that  they  might  be 
equipped  for  this  great  work.  The  promise  of 
power  was  associated  with  the  command  to  evan- 
gelize the  nations.  At  the  very  last  moment,  on 
Olivet  itself,  Jesus  renewed  the  promise  of  spiritual 
power,  and  upon  this,  for  the  second  time,  based  his 
commission  to  evangelize  the  nations.  He  gave  no 
intimation  that  such  a  gigantic  task  would  ever  be 
practicable  unless  executed  by  men  clothed  with  spe- 
cial, power.  The  Gospel  is  really  not  the  Gospel  if 
presented  apart  from  the  power  which  makes  it  ef- 
fectual. In  this  great  work  the  message  and  the 
Spirit  which  inspires  it  are  inseparable.  It  is  a  thou- 
sand pities  that  men,  often  good  men,  so  often  seem 
to  overlook  this  union.  We  see,  on  the  one  hand, 
many  who  talk  much  about  the  gift  of  power,  who 
make  it  the  subject  of  special  teaching  and  special  in- 
quiry, and  yet  who  seem  to  take  little  or  no  interest 
in  the  work  for  which  this  gift  is  promised;  and 
again,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find  others  who  talk 
much  of  missions,  give  freely,  and  labor  earnestly  for 
the  heathen,  and  yet  who  do  not  seem  for  a  moment 
to  understand  that  Pentecost  and  the  missionary  en- 
terprise stand  inseparably  connected.  It  was  no 
part  of  our  Saviour's  plan  to  send  his  servants  forth 
for  the  mere  sake  of  founding  a  new  system,  or  teach- 
ing new  truth.  The  mouth  of  each  speaker  was  to 
be  as  the  mouth  of  God,  and  the  power  of  God  was 
every-where  to  attend  the  spoken  word.  The  Gospel 
was  to  be  aggressive.  It  was  to  confront  every  enemy 
with  boldness,  and  grapple  fearlessly  with  all  the  com- 
bined powers  of  evil  in  the  world. 

4.  It  was  to  he  successful.     The  paralyzing  notion 


112  Missionary  Addresses. 

which  too  many  in  recent  times  have  adopted,  that 
Jesus  set  before  his  followers  an  impossible  task,  that 
he  commanded  them  to  go  forth  to  a  work  of  dis- 
couragement and  ultimate  failure,  finds  no  founda- 
tion in  the  terms  of  the  farewell  commandment 
itself,  or  in  any  of  the  conditions  connected  with  it. 
The  work  to  be  done  included  toil,  danger,  difficul- 
ties, and  determined  opposition,  but  it  was  to  end  in 
victory.  Strongholds  were  to  be  encountered,  but 
only  encountered  to  be  thrown  down.  Triumph  was 
to  attend  the  footsteps  of  those  who  were  to  follow 
a  triumphant  Lord.  The  contest  might  seem  long, 
but  in  the  end  temples  were  to  crumble  away,  idols 
be  thrown  down,  altars  forsaken,  and  hoary  systems 
of  error  perish  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
spirit  of  the  Gospel — I  mean  more  especially  the 
missionary  Gospel,  which  is  the  real  Gospel — is  one 
which  breathes  hope  into  every  crushed  heart  and 
hurls  defiance  at  every  wicked  power  on  earth.  It 
knows  neither  fear  nor  defeat,  and  can  never  yield 
until  our  great  Leader  shall  send  forth  judgment  unto 
victory. 

The  supreme  power  and  the  assured  triumph  of 
our  risen  Master  are  set  forth  in  characters  of  most 
impressive  grandeur  in  one  of  the  revelations  made 
to  Daniel.  In  a  vision  of  the  night  the  prophet  saw 
the  Ancient  of  days  seated  upon  his  throne  of  fiery 
flame.  Instead  of  the  river  of  living  water  which 
John  saw,  Daniel  beheld  a  river  of  living  fire,  an- 
other type  of  the  Spirit,  proceeding  forth  from  the 
throne.  Myriads  of  the  heavenly  host  stood  round 
about,  or  waited  in  ministering  service  before  the 
awful  Presence.      The  vision  shifts  the  scene  for  a 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  113 

moment,  and  a  new  Personage  is  seen  approaching, 
coining  robed  in  the  clouds  which  had  just  received 
him  upon  Olivet,  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  heavenly 
world,  and  yet  coming  in  the  form  of  a  member  of  our 
own  poor  human  race.  A  myriad  of  angels  hasten 
to  escort  him  to  the  burning  throne,  and  there  in  the 
midst  of  redeemed  spirits  and  chanting  angels  Jesus 
received  his  kingdom  and  his  throne.  The  penitent 
thief  was  in  the  throng  which  looked  on  in  adoring 
wonder;  and  with  the  promise  that  all  people,  and 
nations,  and  languages  should  serve  him,  and  with 
power  over  all  realms,  Jesus  returned  to  his  stricken 
disciples,  and  proclaimed,  "  All  power  is  given  unto 
me,  in  heaven  and  in  earth." 

This  risen,  glorified,  and  enthroned  Jesus  is  our 
Leader.  He  sends  us  forth  to  complete  the  work  com- 
menced by  himself.  All  people,  and  nations,  and 
languages  shall,  indeed,  serve  him,  and  the  command- 
ment left  with  us  is  simply  this :  that  we  shall  carry 
on  to  its  final  and  successful  execution  the  great  work 
of  overthrowing  sin,  and  all  the  strongholds  of  sin, 
and  bringing  in  the  day  when  all  the  people,  and 
languages,  and  tribes,  and  nations  of  our  poor  earth 
shall  receive  the  law  at  his  mouth,  rendering  him  a 
willing  and  joyful  service. 

Such  being  the  terms  of  the  great  Farewell  Com- 
mandment, let  us  next  consider  the  superlative  im- 
portance of  immediate  and  unconditional  obedience 
to  it  on  the  part  of  the  Church. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  we  ought  always  to  remember 
that  it  is  for  this  that  the  Church  exists.  It  is  a  very 
great  mistake,  a  fearful  mistake,  indeed,  to  assume 
that  obedience  to  this  command  is  optional,  and  that 


114  Missionary  Addresses. 

Christian  Churches  and  Christian  people  can  assist  in 
evangelizing  the  nations  or  not  as  may  seem  best.  In 
fact,  the  modern  missionary  movement  is  to  a  great 
extent  paralyzed  by  this  mistaken  notion.  It  is 
spoken  of  as  a  great  benevolent  enterprise,  and  even 
our  own  Church  officially  places  it  among  the  benevo- 
lent objects  for  which  contributions  are  solicited.  In 
other  words,  Christians  are  importuned  to  be  kind 
enough  and  good  enough  to  assist  Jesus  Christ  with 
a  passing  contribution  as  he  marches  by  on  his  way 
to  the  conquest  of  the  world !  This  is  very  danger- 
ous trifling  with  a  very  serious  duty.  Our  Saviour 
rebuked  in  scathing  terms  the  pious  mockery  by 
which  children  tried  to  evade  their  obligation  to  their 
parents.  Their  service  was  consecrated  to  God,  and 
hence  it  could  not  be  owing  to  their  parents.  Any 
thing  given  on  their  part  to  the  parents  to  whom 
they  owed  life  and  being  must  be  a  purely  voluntary 
gift.  But  what  have  we  been  doing?  Our  great 
duty,  our  life-work,  our  most  solemn  obligation,  is 
laid  aside,  and  in  its  place  we  substitute  an  occasional 
act  of  benevolence,  often  ostentatiously  performed, 
and  yet  think  God  will  hold  us  guiltless ! 

This  is  simply  trifling,  whether  we  intend  it  as 
such  or  not.  Jesus  Christ  left  his  Church  in  the 
world  for  the  supreme  purpose  of  completing  the 
work  commenced  by  himself.  He  sent  his  followers 
into  the  world,  even  as  the  Father  had  sent  him.  To 
accomplish  this  wTork  he  maintains  the  Church  to-day. 
For  this  the  Church  exists.  This  is  the  object,  the 
very  essence  of  the  purpose,  for  which  the  Church 
has  a  right  to  exist.  But  for  this  our  eartli  would 
be  wrapped  in  flame  in   a  second.      Let  Christians 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  115 

every-where  deliberately  resolve  to  abandon  this 
work,  and  refuse  to  obey  this  great  commandment, 
and  one  of  two  things  will  inevitably  follow.  God 
will  cast  off  his  recreant  people  and  raise  up  a  new 
spiritual  seed  or  else  the  knell  of  time  will  sound, 
and  the  world  be  overtaken  by  its  final  doom  before 
the  rising  of  another  sun. 

2.  Disobedience  to  this  command  thwai^ts  our 
Saviour* 8  purpose  in  trying  to  save  the  world. 
Christ  died  for  the  race,  rose  from  the  dead  for  the 
race,  received  from  the  Father  the  Spirit  for  the  race, 
and  thus  put  salvation  within  reach  of  the  race;  but 
the  practical  work  of  bringing  men  into  contact  with 
this  salvation  was  committed  to  Christian  believers. 
God  made  men  co-workers  with  himself  in  this  work. 
►Why  he  did  so  we  may  not  know,  and  need  not  in- 
quire. It  is  sufficient  for  us  to  be  assured  that  this 
is  the  fact,  and  that  God  will  not  change  his  plan. 
No  angel,  no  seraph,  no  redeemed  spirit,  can  deliver 
the  Gospel  message,  or  explain  a  Gospel  promise, 
or  point  to  Christ,  or  invoke  the  Spirit,  or  assist  in 
saving  a  soul.  The  angels  can  minister  to  the  heirs 
of  salvation,  but  cannot  assist  in  making  sinners  heirs. 
This  work  must  be  done  by  Christian  disciples. 
God  has  done  his  part,  and  every  thing  is  now  ready 
for  the  ingathering  of  the  nations,  for  the  salvation 
of  the  race.  But  this  work  cannot  be  done  till  Chris- 
tians start  up  from  their  slumber,  recognize  their  re- 
sponsibility, and  address  themselves  to  their  gigantic 
task.  They  must  tell  the  nations  that  Jesus  lives  to 
save.  They  must  go  in  his  blessed  name,  clothed 
with  his  power,  armed  with  his  authority,  and  search 
out  every  soul   of  man  until  the  mighty  task  is  done. 


116  Missionary  Addresses. 

Until   they  do  this  they  really  stand  in  the  way  of 
the  salvation  of  the  nations. 

We  cannot  dwell  upon  this  thought  too  seriously, 
we  cannot  study  it  too  carefully  or  too  prayerfully. 
Between  Calvary  and  the  millions  of  earth's  perishing 
children  there  is  only  one  medium  of  communica- 
tion— the  lips  of  Christian  disciples.  To  refuse  to 
preach  Christ,  to  refuse  to  hold  up  Calvary  before 
the  heathen  nations  of  the  world,  is  to  make  Christ's 
message  of  love  of  no  effect  so  far  as  the  great  mass 
of  mankind  is  concerned.  No  words  can  express  the 
extent  of  the  awful  responsibility  which  is  thus  made 
to  rest  upon  us  as  co-workers  with  God  in  the  stu- 
pendous work  of  saving  the  world.  Jesus  Christ 
unites  us  to  himself,  not  only  as  the  member  to  its 
living  Head,  but  in  his  character  as  Saviour.  He 
unites  us  to  himself,  shares  his  mission  with  us,  and 
makes  the  realization  of  his  salvation  anions:  men 
almost  wholly  dependent  upon  us.  Well  may  we  be 
startled  as  the  thought  of  this  unspeakable  responsi- 
bility flashes  upon  our  minds  and  hearts.  The  word 
"  missionary  "  assumes  a  new  meaning  to  us  from  this 
time  forth.  We  seem  to  move  in  full  view  at  once 
of  Calvary  and  of  the  judgment  throne.  We  look 
upon  our  fellow-men  with  a  new  affection,  and  we 
think  of  the  nations  sitting  in  darkness  with  a  new 
concern.  The  very  mention  of  the  fate  of  the 
heathen  startles  us  as  if  out  of  a  guilty  sleep,  and  we 
hear  so  many  putting  forward  their  surmises  and 
their  theories,  we  almost  tremble  to  think  that  the 
fate  of  great  nations,  the  fate  about  which  so  many 
idly  speculate  and  dispute,  largely  depends  upon  our 
action  ;  upon  our  fidelity  to  a  simple,  plain  command. 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  117 

3.  Disobedience  to  this  commandment  puts  the 
Church  in  a  false  position.  The  Church  of  Christ  is 
a  witnessing  Church,  but  in  this  case  the  value  of  the 
testimony  depends  very  much  upon  the  consistency 
of  the  witness.  The  work  of  the  first  disciple  is 
practically  the  work  of  all  Christian  disciples,  of 
every  age  and  clime.  They  must  bear  witness  to  the 
fact  that  the  Saviour  of  sinners  rose  from  the  dead, 
that  he  lives  and  reigns  to-day,  and  that  he  has  com- 
mitted to  his  people  the  great  work  of  bringing  the 
whole  world  into  subjection  to  himself.  But  such  a 
testimony  becomes  lifeless  and  powerless  if  it  is  not 
supported  by  conduct  on  the  part  of  Christian  be- 
lievers in  harmony  with  such  a  claim.  If  the  story 
told  by  the  New  Testament  is  true,  if  Jesus  Christ 
really  does  assert  his  claim  to  the  love  and  allegiance 
of  all  nations,  and  if  that  claim  is  to  be  enforced  by 
the  earnest  co-operating  efforts  of  his  disciples,  then 
most  certainly  the  spectacle  of  millions  of  professed 
disciples  of  this  risen  Master  living  in  perfect  indiffer- 
ence to  the  state  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  their 
fellow-men  is  more  than  an  inconsistency.  It  is  a 
practical  denial  of  the  very  testimony  which  they  are 
supposed  to  offer.  It  is  a  practical  denial  of  an  es- 
sential part  of  the  Gospel  message,  and  the  Church 
which  fails  of  her  duty  at  this  point  becomes  guilty 
of  either  glaring  inconsistency  or  daring  neglect  of 
duty,  if  not  indeed  of  both. 

It  has  long  been  the  fashion  to  speak  in  disparaging 
terms  of  a  sect  of  somewhat  uncultured  people,  found 
in  the  Western  States,  known  as  Anti-mission  Bap- 
tists. I  must  confess  that  these  people  have  one 
merit  for  which  they  deserve  our   praise :    they  are 


US  Missionary  Addresses. 

consistent.  They  boldly  avow  their  faith,  or  rather 
their  want  of  faith.  They  do  not  preach  a  Gospel  of 
present,  free,  and  full  salvation  and  at  the  same  time 
act  as  if  this  Gospel  were  a  monopoly  of  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  Protestant  Christians.  They  do  not  proclaim 
that  the  whole  world  has  been  redeemed  by  the  blood 
of  Christ  and  at  the  same  time  treat  whole  nations  as 
if  they  had  no  interest  whatever  in  Christ's  atoning 
work.  They  do  not  pretend  to  believe  in  a  brother- 
hood of  the  race  and  at  the  same  time  recognize  only 
a  brotherhood  of  their  little  circle.  They  do  not 
pretend  to  accept  a  doctrine  of  individual  responsi- 
bility and  then  adopt  a  life  of  utter  indifference  to 
the  most  awful  responsibility  which  God  ever  laid 
upon  human  hearts.  No ;  for  one,  I  cannot  ridicule 
these  people  ;  I  have  no  heart  for  such  a  thing.  They 
might  cast  ridicule  upon  many  of  their  detractors 
much  more  consistently  than  become  the  objects  of 
ridicule  themselves.  Their  position  is  absurdly  false, 
their  creed  fatally  narrow,  and  their  religious  growth 
stunted  and  gnarled,  but  they  nevertheless  are  con- 
sistent in  maintaining  a  wrong  position. 

If  the  modern  missionary  movement  does  nothing 
else,  it  certainly  deserves  credit  for  this  one  thing :  it 
rolls  away  a  reproach  from  the  door  of  the  Christian 
Church,  it  restores  a  leaf  torn  from  the  Gospel  procla- 
mation, and  it  puts  the  Christian  preacher  in  a  position 
of  consistency  in  the  eyes  of  men  and  nations.  But 
to  do  all  this  effectually  this  great  enterprise  must  be 
prosecuted  in  a  new  spirit.  The  beggarly  rate  at 
which  men  have  been  accustomed  to  give  for  this 
cause  must  be  abandoned.  The  devotion  of  the  Church 
of  Pentecost  must  be  brought  back  again  to  earth,  and 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  119 

Christian  men  and  women  must  address  themselves  to 
their  task  in  the  spirit  of  Him  who  gave  up  all  for 
us,  who  became  poor  for  our  Bakes,  who  emptied  him- 
self of  all  but  love,  and  who  found  it  more  than  his 
daily  food  to  do  the  work  which  lie  had  been  com- 
missioned to  do.  It  is  absolutely  humiliating  to  see 
the  spirit  in  which  this  work  is  prosecuted  in  many 
quarters.  In  some  of  the  most  prosperous  sections  of 
our  country,  our  own  Methodist  people,  singing  their 
joyous  hymns,  professing  to  share  the  love  of  Christ, 
talking  of  this  love  as  their  most  precious  inheritance, 
and  praying  for  the  hastening  of  Christ's  ultimate 
triumph,  absolutely  fail  to  give  as  much  as  half  a 
cent  a  week  for  the  salvation  of  the  human  race.  The 
men  and  women  who  present  this  beggarly  offering 
are  more  ignorant  than  guilty,  but  they  little  think 
how  much  harm  they  do  by  putting  the  Church  in  a 
false  position,  by  bringing  their  lofty  profession  into 
utter  contempt,  and  by  ostentatiously  robbing  God 
and  wronging  Jesus  Christ  in  the  name  of  Christian 
benevolence  and  evangelistic  enterprise.  Hardly  any 
single  enterprise  of  the  devil  can  be  named  which 
does  not  receive  a  more  unstinted  support.  The 
traveling  circus,  the  debasing  theater,  the  gambler's 
den,  not  to  speak  of  the  omnipresent  saloon  and  other 
more  glaring  forms  of  vice — any  one  of  these  evils 
will  collect  a  larger  revenue  than  the  competing  church 
will  give  for  the  rescue  of  the  world.  A  single  fash- 
ionable reception  in  a  large  city  is  made  to  cost  more 
than  all  the  Christians  attending  it  will  give  in  a 
whole  year  for  this  cause.  Sin  is  a  cruel  tax-collector, 
but  folly  is  equally  heartless,  and  sin  and  folly  together 
collect  frightful  sums  from  Christian  people.     Money 


120  Missionary  Addresses. 

is  poured  out  like  water  when  the  world  demands  it, 
and  doled  out  in  the  meanest  driblets  when  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  asks  for  it.  Sometimes  we  smile  when 
we  hear  of  the  absurdly  mean  parsimony  of  some 
givers,  as  of  the  well-to-do  man  who  subscribed  his 
name  for  ten  cents  to  be  divided  among  four  great 
charities,  but  I  confess  the  whole  subject  is  too  grave 
for  amusement.  If  God's  word  has  any  meaning, 
this  kind  of  conduct  imperils  the  souls  of  those  who 
indulge  in  it,  while  the  whole  Church  of  Christ  suf- 
fers unspeakably  from  such  a  public  and  formal  denial 
of  her  most  solemn  obligations. 

If  our  Saviour  were  to  come  again  at  some  mid- 
night hour  during  this  present  year,  in  what  attitude 
would  he  find  his  people  ?  Their  task  has  been  clearly 
set  before  them,  and  more  than  eighteen  and  a  half 
centuries  have  elapsed  since  their  work  began.  In 
all  these  long  centuries  God  has  been  willing  to  help, 
the  promises  have  all  remained  constant,  the  Spirit 
has  been  present  to  convince  and  renew,  and  the  way 
before  the  messengers  of  truth  has  been  as  open  as 
when  the  farewell  was  spoken  on  Olivet.  What  has 
been  accomplished  ?  What  is  being  done  ?  The 
very  thought  of  such  a  coming  is  startling.  Millions 
upon  millions  of  Christians  are  slumbering.  The 
doors  of  the  nations  are  all  ajar,  and  yet  hundreds  of 
millions  have  not  yet  ever  heard  'the  name  of  the 
great  Deliverer.  At  home,  whole  communities  are 
living  in  utter,  blind  ignorance  of  Christian  truth.  A 
Bible  woman  who  speaks  to  a  girl  in  a  Christian  city 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  told  that  no  such  person  lives  in 
her  street.  Abroad,  a  nation,  an  empire,  is  equally 
ignorant.     Is   this   all   that   the   followers   of  Jesus 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  121 

Christ  can  show  for  all  these  long  centuries  of  work  \ 
Would  his  living  disciples  of  to-day  dare  to  present 
the  record  before  him  if  he  came  in  person  to  demand 
his  own  with  usury?  No,  they  would  tremble  at  the 
thought.  But  the  record  stands,  just  as  it  is,  seen  of 
men  and  angels,  proclaiming  the  unfaithfulness  of 
those  who  bear  the  name  of  Christ,  and  robbing  the 
Church  of  the  power  which  she  would  wield  in  the 
world  if  she  could  present  a  consistent  attitude  as  the 
true  and  faithful  servant  of  an  absent  and  coming 
Lord. 

4.  The  very  life  of  the  Church  depends  on  obe- 
dience to  this  command.  It  has  often  been  said  that 
the  missionary  enterprise  is  the  life  of  the  Church. 
Dr.  Durbin  used  to  say  that  it  was  "  the  hope  of  the 
Church  abroad,  and  the  life  of  the  Church  at  home." 
This  is  usually  supposed  to  be  owing  to  the  reflex  in- 
fluence of  such  a  work  upon  those  engaged  in  it. 
Every  good  work  reacts  in  a  blessed  way  upon  those 
who  carry  it  on,  and  this  missionary  work  forms  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  This  is  very  true,  but  it  is 
easy  to  find  a  more  direct  and  striking  explanation  of 
the  undoubted  fact  which  has  arrested  the  attention 
of  so  many  thoughtful  men. 

That  which  we  call  the  life  of  the  Church  is  in 
reality  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelling  in  and  pervading  the 
hearts  of  believers,  creating  Christian  love  and  zeal,  and 
guiding  and  empowering  Christian  workers  in  their 
various  fields  of  labor.  God's  spirit  is  given  every- 
where, and  to  all  alike,  upon  the  unvarying  condition 
of  fidelity  and  obedience.  The  man  who  trusts  and 
obeys  will  as  surely  receive  the  Spirit,  and  walk  in 
the  Spirit,  as  he  will  receive  and  breathe  the  free  air 


123  Missionary  Addresses. 

of  heaven.  He  may  shut  off  the  air,  destroy  the  ven- 
tilation of  his  dwelling,  and  lose  the  vigor  of  health 
in  consequence,  but  this  must  be  by  his  own  act.  So 
a  man  may  shut  himself  away  from  the  free  operation 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  either  by  disobedience  or  unbe- 
lief, and  when  he  does  so  a  vigorous,  buoyant,  spirit- 
ual life  becomes  impossible  to  him.  He  may  pray, 
and  wrestle,  and  fast,  and  labor  for  a  thousand  years, 
but  it  will  all  be  in  vain.  The  spiritual  side  of  his 
being  will  be  dwarfed,  his  spiritual  strength  will  wane, 
and  his  spiritual  life  sink  lower  and  lower.  As  with 
the  individual,  so  with  the  Church.  Her  life  is  made 
dependent  upon  her  fidelity  and  obedience,  and  any 
deliberate  and  continuous  course  of  neglect  of  duty 
must  inevitably  cause  the  sacred  fire  to  burn  low  upon 
her  altars,  and  the  spiritual  life  of  her  membership  to 
become  more  and  more  feeble  and  inconstant. 

Keeping  this  rule  of  spiritual  action  in  mind,  it 
follows,  of  course,  that  disobedience  to  the  Farewell 
Commandment  must  inevitably  depress  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  Church,  but  the  case  is  not  one  of  ordinary 
disobedience.  The  gift  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  plenitude 
of  his  grace  and  power,  is  for  the  special  purpose  of 
enabling  Christ's  disciples  to  execute  this  great  com- 
mission. To  neglect  or  refuse  to  engage  in  that  work 
is  to  put  ourselves,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  out 
of  range  of  the  Spirit's  action.  It  is  like  an  attempt 
to  hide  from  the  influence  of  a  cooling  breeze,  like  a 
shutting  off  the  free  ventilation  of  the  room  we  oc- 
cupy. God  will  not  work  a  miracle  to  give  life  and 
health  to  those  wTho  refuse  to  breathe  the  free  air  of 
heaven,  and  no  more  will  he  send  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  those    who    refuse   to  move  where  the  Spirit 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  123 

wafts  them,  who  refuse  to  act  as  the  Spirit  prompts 
them,  and  who  refuse  to  attempt  the  work  for  which 
Jesus  promised  the  robe  of  power. 

We  hear  much  in  these  days  about  Pentecost,  about 
the  fullness  of  blessing,  about  the  possibilities  of  the 
holy  living,  and  the  measure  of  spiritual  power  which 
a  believer  may  expect  to  receive.  The  whole  subject 
is  one  of  surpassing  interest,  but  for  one  I  have  ceased 
to  look  for  a  reappearance  of  Pentecost,  even  apart 
from  its  miraculous  features,  till  God's  people  become 
willing  to  recognize  the  object  of  Pentecost.  The 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  must  become  obedient  to  her 
great  trust  before  the  Spirit  in  his  fullness  will  again 
come  upon  her  from  on  high.  We  often  hear  it  said 
that  if  all  Christians  would  get  down  on  their  knees, 
and  pray,  and  wait,  and  watch,  as  did  the  few  in  the 
upper  room,  God  would  open  the  windows  of  heaven 
and  pour  out  a  blessing  which  there  would  not  be 
room  enough  to  receive.  But  I  am  by  no  means  sure 
that  this  is  the  kind  of  waiting  and  praying  that  is 
needed.  The  ten-days'  waiting  in  that  upper  room 
sufficed  for  all  time.  The  Spirit  was  given  as  a  per- 
manent gift,  to  abide  throughout  the  dispensation,  and 
now  it  is  our  privilege  to  receive  the  living  water 
freely  without  any  weary  delay.  What  we  need  to 
do  is  not  so  much  to  meet  together  to  pray  as  to 
gird  up  our  loins  for  obedient  service.  Let  Christians 
every- where  simply  face  about,  turn  toward  the 
heathen  world,  and  begin  to  plan  for  an  immediate 
advance  and  early  triumph,  and  at  once  the  Spirit  of 
life  would  begin  to  move  with  new  energy,  a  new 
throb  would  be  felt  in  ten  million  hearts,  and  every- 
where it  would  be  realized  as  never  before  that  a  new 
9 


121  Missionary  Addresses. 

vitality  had  taken  possession  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

It  is  needless  to  pursue  these  thoughts  further.  The 
simple  statement  of  the  real  bearings  of  this  great 
commandment,  so  neglected  and  so  nearly  forgotten 
by  the  majority  of  Christians,  ought  to  suffice  to 
rouse  every  lover  of  the  world's  Saviour  to  the  over- 
whelming importance  of  putting  it  in  the  very  fore- 
front of  all  Christian  duties.  The  Sunday -school 
teacher  should  make  it  as  prominent  as  the  command- 
ments of  Moses,  the  parent  should  include  it  among 
the  very  first  lessons  of  childhood.  The  preacher 
should  hold  it  up  as  a  solemn  obligation,  binding 
upon  all  Christians,  and  never  to  be  slighted  without 
incurring  guilt.  He  should  no  longer  timidly  present 
it  as  a  suggestion,  or  an  exhortation,  or  a  request,  but 
as  a  supreme  command,  given  under  the  most  solemn 
circumstances,  and  no  more  to  be  set  aside  than  any 
one  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  A  Christian  has  as 
much  right  to  steal  as  to  refuse  to  obey  this  plain  and 
unequivocal  command.  He  may  as  well  trample  on 
the  Sabbath,  or  reject  the  sacraments,  or  refuse  to 
join  in  public  worship,  or,  in  short,  boldly  and  defi- 
antly neglect  any  other  plain  duty,  as  calmly  to  go 
on  his  way  and  utterly  neglect  to  enter  heartily  into 
this  great  and  holy  enterprise.  The  preacher  who 
knows  his  duty  will  not  neglect  to  enforce  the  imper- 
ative nature  of  this  obligation.  He  will  see  clearly 
that  the  welfare  of  the  souls  committed  to  him,  the 
life  of  the  Church  which  he  serves,  depend  on  fidelity 
to  this  duty,  and  he  will  teach  and  preach  accord- 
ing1^ 

We  are  entering  upon  an  era  of  Christian  aggress- 


The  Farewell  Commandment.  125 

iveness,  when  no  preacher  can  hope  to  stand  well  to 
the  front  unless  he  not  only  understands,  but  enters 
into,  the  Spirit  of  this  great  commission.  The  per- 
functory preaching  of  a  sermon  on  missions  once  a 
year,  and  the  reluctant  gathering  of  the  annual  offer- 
ing in  the  shape  of  a  collection,  will  do  for  a  wooden 
man  in  a  formal  pulpit,  but  the  preacher  of  the  new 
day  now  dawning  must  handle  the  trumpet  of  a 
crusader.  He  must  preach  a  gospel  of  conquest  and 
victory.  He  must  thoroughly  master  the  terms  of 
his  commission.  He  must  have  a  vision  wide  enough 
to  take  in  all  the  broad  earth,  and  he  must  be  en- 
nobled by  the  consciousness  that  he  too,  although 
standing  in  a  Christian  pulpit  in  a  Christian  land,  is 
none  the  less  doing  his  part  in  the  great  work  of 
saving  the  world.  He  must  first  feel,  and  then  teach, 
that  all  the  disciples  of  Christ  are  moving  together, 
that  all  march  in  a  common  phalanx,  and  that  all  are 
to  share  a  common  victory. 

This  view  ennobles  every  Christian,  and  when 
fully  realized  will  give  new  power  to  every  disciple 
of  our  common  Master.  There  is  a  wonderful  elas- 
ticity in  the  step  of  a  soldier  marching  to  assured 
victory,  and  keeping  step  with  a  vast  host  of  equally 
confident  comrades.  He  has  the  bearing  of  a  hero, 
and  every  fiber  of  his  being  thrills  with  unwonted 
life.  What  a  change  would  come  over  the  universal 
Church  of  Christ  if  all  could  only  be  made  to  hear 
the  bugle  call  from  the  skies,  and  be  led  forth  to  a 
great  and  victorious  advance  upon  the  kingdom  of 
darkness  in  this  world.  Such  a  movement  would 
transform  the  Christian  world.  The  weak  would  be 
made  strong,  the  despondent  filled  with  hope,  the  idle 


12t>  Missionary  Addresses. 

nerved  for  work,  and  all  filled  with  lofty  courage, 
deep  devotion,  and  unquenchable  love  and  zeal.  The 
world  will  never  see,  can  never  know,  what  a  really 
living,  aggressive  Christian  Church  is  till  this  great 
advance  begins.  May  it  come  soon.  May  the  nerve- 
less, drowsy,  seltish  Churches  of  Christendom  soon 
hear  the  command  of  Him  whose  name  they  bear, 
and  rise  as  if  from  the  dead  to  address  themselves 
to  the  work  which  has  been  neglected  through  all 
these  weary  centuries;  and  may  such  an  advance  be 
sounded  as  may  carry  dismay  through  all  the  ranks  of 
Christ's  enemies,  and  assure  the  early  and  complete 
deliverance  of  all  nations  from  the  cruel  grasp  of  the 
prince  of  darkness ! 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  127 


T 


THE  BEGGAR  AT  OUR  GATE. 

HE  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  presents 
to  the  thoughtful  Christian  a  wonderful  combi- 
nation of  most  important  lessons.  Its  indirect  sug- 
gestions are  hardly  less  important  than  its  direct 
teaching.  It  has  powerfully  influenced  Christian 
thought,  and  has  done  much  in  helping  to  mold 
Christian  doctrine,  especially  in  all  that  relates  to  the 
awful  realities  of  the  future  world.  It  sternly  re- 
bukes the  rich,  and  at  the  same  time  tenderly  com- 
forts the  poor.  It  shows  the  sin  and  folly  of  living 
only  for  the  present  life,  by  putting  time  in  the 
scales  to  be  weighed  against  eternity.  It  points  out 
the  danger  of  neglecting  present  opportunity,  and 
the  hopelessness  of  every  effort  to  recall  the  past.  It 
makes  idle  luxury  a  crime,  and  powerfully  suggests 
the  peril  of  neglecting  the  helpless  poor  at  our  doors. 
It  reveals  with  awful  vividness  the  outlines  of  that 
unseen  realm  into  which  we  are  all  passing,  and  the 
startling  relation  of  our  brief  sojourn  here  to  the 
endless  and  changeless  existence  which  awaits  us 
there.  It  speaks  to  communities  as  well  as  to  in- 
dividuals, to  the  nation  as  well  as  to  the  particular 
citizen,  to  the  Church  as  well  as  to  the  single  dis- 
ciple. It  illustrates  principles  and  laws  which  are  as 
wide  as  the  world,  and  as  comprehensive  as  the  inter- 
ests of  the  human  race. 

Selecting  one  lesson  from  the  many  taught  in  this 


128  Missionary  Addresses. 

parable,  I  wisli  to  consider  in  the  present  lecture  the 
relation  in  which  we  as  a  Christian  nation,  or  as  a 
Christian  Church,  are  placed  to  that  vast  aggregation 
of  humanity  which  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the 
heathen  world.  The  individual  heathen,  from  what- 
ever land  brought,  may  well  stand  as  the  representative 
of  his  class.  The  term  heathen,  being  used  in  its 
popular  sense,  may  be  accepted  simply  as  an  equiva- 
lent for  non-Christian,  and  may  represent  alike 
Brahman  and  Buddhist,  Mohammedan  and  pagan, 
demon-worshiper  and  devotee  of  the  jungle  fetich. 
Non-Christian  people  may,  it  is  very  true,  be  found 
in  Christian  lands,  but  such  people  differ  from  those 
just  enumerated.  They  profit  by  their  contact  with 
Christianity  in  spite  of  themselves,  and  are  not  for  a 
moment  to  be  reckoned  with  those  who  are  without 
its  pale.  They  enjoy  in  a  measure  the  light  which 
shines  around  them,  they  share  the  blessings  which 
the  general  community  enjoys,  and  they  stand  face 
to  face  with  ever-present  golden  opportunities  for 
seeking  and  finding  the  highest  good.  But  it  is 
all  different  with  the  nations  which  sit  in  darkness, 
nations  without  God's  revealed  word,  and  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  Saviour  of  men.  They  are  poor, 
spiritually  and  temporally  poor;  they  are  helpless 
and  bruised,  are  covered  with  festering  sores,  and 
now  in  these  modern  days  of  accelerated  travel  they 
may  be  said  to  lie  at  our  very  gate,  and  by  their 
presence  they  powerfully  appeal  to  us  for  pity  and 
help. 

In  thus  applying  the  picture  of  Lazarus  at  the  gate 
of  Dives  to  the  heathen  prostrated  before  our  own 
doors,  let  us  consider : 


The  Beggar  at  Our  Gate.  129 

1.  The  deep  poverty  of  the  non-Christian  world. 
Whether  we  consider  the  actual  condition  of  these 
people,  using  the  word  poverty  in  its  literal  sense,  or 
have  regard  to  the  deep  spiritual  destitution  in  which 
they  live,  in  either  case  a  faithful  picture  of  their 
state  is  truly  startling.  The  common  impression 
that  those  who  neglect  God  gain  most  of  this 
world's  good  things,  and  prosper  more  than  those  who 
fear  him,  is  founded  deep  in  error.  It  is  the  meek 
who  inherit  the  earth.  In  the  face  of  a  thousand 
seeming  contradictions  the  fact  remains  that  those 
who  forsake  God  do  not  permanently  prosper,  and 
the  nations  which,  through  long  ages,  have  persistent- 
ly forsaken  him  are  to-day  wretchedly  poor.  Indeed, 
the  word  poor,  as  popularly  used  in  the  United  States, 
fails  to  convey  any  thing  like  a  correct  idea  of  the 
extreme  wretchedness  of  the  great  mass  of  those  liv- 
ing in  the  heathen  world.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only 
a  mere  handful  of  the  human  race  can  be  said  to  he 
even  moderately  well-to-do.  Five  hundred  millions 
of  our  fellow-beings  will  sleep  to-night  in  rude  huts, 
with  the  earth  for  a  floor,  a  thatch  of  grass  or  leaves 
for  a  roof,  with  walls  of  mud  or  perhaps  of  matting 
of  reeds  or  leaves,  while  fifty,  or  very  possibly  a  hun- 
dred, million  more  will  lie  down  to  sleep  under  the 
open  sky,  or  at  best  under  the  shelter  of  a  hospitable 
tree.  Labor  is  so  cheap  *in  the  vast  regions  of  the 
East,  that  is,  among  almost  half  the  people  on  the 
globe,  that  its  reward  would  be  regarded  as  a  cruel 
mockery  if  offered  as  wages  in  this  country.  The 
average  income  of  millions  upon  millions  does  not  ex- 
ceed twenty-five  dollars  a  year  for  a  whole  family. 
Millions  of  laboring  men  toil  all  day  long  only  to  re- 


130  Missionary  Addresses. 

ceive  five  cents  at  night  as  the  day's  wages.  The 
strong  men  in  America  who  combine  in  gigantic 
strikes  usually  decline  to  accept  a  scale  of  pay  which 
would  represent  forty  or  fifty  times  the  price  of  or- 
dinary labor  in  most  parts  of  the  non-Christian  world. 

What  all  this  means  people  in  America  can  hardly 
realize.  The  people  earn  a  mere  subsistence,  but 
nothing  more.  The  daily  meals,  if  indeed  more  than 
one  full  meal  is  enjoyed,  are  eaten  in  quiet  resigna- 
tion, if  not  contentment,  but  too  seldom  do  parents 
and  children  eat  to  satiety.  It  is  a  startling  thought 
that,  while  we  shall  lie  down  to-night  to  sleep  in  com- 
fort, in  homes  of  positive  luxury,  probably  five  hun- 
dred millions  of  our  fellow-men  will  seek  their  rest 
on  earthen  floors,  after  having  partaken  of  a  stinted 
meal ;  with  barely  enough  to  sustain  life,  but  not 
enough  to  meet  the  full  demands  of  hunger.  And 
this,  too,  you  must  remember,  in  prosperous,  or  at 
least  in  ordinary,  times.  But  among  such  a  people 
scarcity  means  suffering  to  millions,  and  the  failure 
of  a  single  crop  means  famine  and  death  to  vast  mul- 
titudes. Famine,  or  even  the  shadow  of  a  famine,  has 
never  once  visited  America ;  but  in  India  I  have 
known  no  less  than  five  of  these  awful  visitations  in 
less  than  thirty  years.  In  one  of  these,  in  a  com- 
paratively small  province,  no  less  than  two  million 
human  beings  were  swept  away  in  less  than  a  single 
year.  In  the  face  of  an  awful  fact  like  this  we  may 
well  pause  and  ask  ourselves  if  we  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  word  poor. 

It  is  a  painful  fact,  and  one  which  the  missionary, 
of  all  men,  cannot  afford  to  forget,  that  we  belong  to 
a  poor  race.     Poverty  walks  in  the  footsteps  of  sin, 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  131 

and  hence  it  was  that  when  the  Saviour  of  sinners 
came  among  men  he  "  became  poor."  He  was  made 
in  the  likeness  of  those  whom  he  came  to  save,  and 
as  lie  was  to  save  to  the  uttermost,  so  he  must  needs 
go  down  to  the  lowest  depths  of  human  misery. 
Over  and  over  again,  when  wretchedly  poor  and 
helpless  people  have  come  to  me  in  India,  and 
poured  out  all  the  painful  story  of  their  suffering  and 
woe,  I  have  found  it  an  unspeakable  comfort  to  be 
able  to  say,  "  Your  Saviour,  the  Saviour  of  all  men, 
when  here  on  earth  was  poorer  than  you."  And  this 
enables  us  to  see  why  it  was  that  Jesus  made  his 
Gospel  in  a  very  special  sense  the  Gospel  of  the  poor. 
It  could  not  otherwise  have  been  a  Gospel  to  the 
whole  race.  When  the  Saviour  of  men  looked  down 
upon  our  lost  and  helpless  race  he  saw  that  which 
Lazarus  in  the  parable  most  strikingly  illustrates — a 
beggared  race  maintaining  existence  by  gathering 
meager  crumbs ;  a  race  not  only  poor,  but  lying  in 
helpless  wretchedness  and  misery. 

The  missionary,  I  say  again,  cannot  afford  to  over- 
look this  fact.  Go  where  he  may  in  the  non-Chris- 
tian world  he  will  find  his  dwelling-place  among  the 
poor.  His  converts  will  for  the  most  part  be  poor. 
He  may  wish  to  have  it  otherwise,  but  he  cannot 
make  it  otherwise.  It  is  an  eternal  law  of  the 
Gospel  that  its  first  proclamation  is  the  special  right 
of  the  poor,  and  the  fact  that  the  heathen,  as  a  mass, 
are  so  very  poor  gives  them  a  first  claim  upon  Chris- 
tian preachers  every-where.  The  messenger  who  is 
sent  to  proclaim  this  Gospel  must  go  as  his  Master 
went,  to  the  poor  and  the  neglected  ones  of  the  earth. 
God  can  and  will  do  great  things  among  these  poor 


132  Missionary  Addresses. 

ones.  The  Gospel  will  lift  them  up.  I  sometimes 
think  that  very  possibly  the  solution  of  some  of  the 
great  social  and  industrial  problems  of  the  age  will 
be  worked  out,  not  in  the  halls  of  philosophy,  or  the 
chambers  of  legislation,  but  in  the  abodes  of  the 
lowly  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  in  mission-fields.  The 
crisis  is  nearest  its  culmination  there,  and  believing, 
as  I  do,  that  God  intends  to  solve  these  problems,  and 
to  do  it  successfully,  I  look  with  hope  and  expectation 
to  the  developments  of  the  future  among  the  surging 
millions  of  earth's  suffering  poor  in  heathen  lands. 

2.  The  spiritual  poverty  of  heathen  nations  is  no 
less  striking  than  their  material  destitution.  It  is 
even  more  distressing  and  appalling,  and  appeals  in 
the  strongest  possible  way  to  the  pity  and  sympathy 
of  every  Christian  in  more  favored  lands.  Of  non- 
Christian  people  generally  it  may  be  said  that  while 
they  are  not  poor  in  spirit  they  are  spiritually  poor. 
I  do  not  mean  that  they  are  all  embruted  and  debased. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  notion  that  we  must 
paint  horrible  pictures  of  heathen  life  in  order  to 
rouse  Christians  in  their  behalf.  God  has  not  left 
any  people  in  such  utter  darkness  that  all  goodness  and 
virtue  have  perished  from  their  midst.  But  what  I 
mean  is  this :  All  those  blessings  and  privileges  which 
are  peculiarly  ours  through  the  Gospel,  those  bless- 
ings which  would  not  be  ours  but  for  the  Gospel,  are 
unknown  in  the  heathen  world.  The  knowledge  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sin,  reconciliation  with  God,  com- 
munion with  the  Heavenly  Father,  the  manifestation 
of  the  living  Christ  to  the  soul,  the  renewal  of  the 
heart,  the  living  hope  of  the  believer,  power  over 
sin,  the  blessedness  of  Christian  fellowship,  the  sweet- 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  133 

ness  of  the  Christian  home,  the  preciousness  of  the 
written  word  of  God,  the  hallowed  day  of  sacred  rest, 
light  in  darkness,  comfort  in  sorrow,  and  life  in  death 
— all  these  blessed  realities  are  practically  unknown 
in  heathen  lands.  What  is  meant  by  such  poverty, 
what  is  the  height  and  depth  of  such  spiritual  desti- 
tution, you  good  people  here  in  this  Christian  country 
do  not  know  and  can  hardly  understand.  You  have 
always  lived  in  the  midst  of  Christian  privileges,  you 
have  always  walked  in  the  light  of  Christian  institu- 
tions, and  hence  you  are  not  able  to  realize  what  it  is 
to  live  in  the  midst  of  a  people  not  one  of  whom 
knows  what  is  meant  by  a  living  hope,  or  what  the 
power  of  divine  love  is  in  the  soul,  or  what  it  is  to 
hold  communion  with  God.  Take  the  living  ele- 
ments of  Christianity  out  of  this  country  at  a  stroke, 
and  you  will  in  a  moment's  time  have  enveloped  the 
whole  land  in  spiritual  twilight.  You  will  have  re- 
duced to  deep  spiritual  poverty  those  who  are  enriched 
above  all  computation,  and  you  will  have  taken  out 
of  life  all  that  makes  life  a  joy  or  a  blessing  in  such  a 
wTorld  as  ours. 

It  is  an  awful  thought  that  there  are  hundreds  of 
millions  of  human  beings  in  the  world  to-day  who 
cannot  possibly  obtain  a  single  page  of  God's  word, 
who  could  not,  no  matter  how  anxious,  find  a  living 
person  to  tell  them  of  a  Saviour,  and  who  are  march- 
ing on  toward  eternity  without  a  single  soul  to  speak 
a  word  of  cheer  to  them,  or  point  them  to  a  star  of 
hope  beyond  the  present  life.  Even  in  India,  with 
Europeans  scattered  all  over  the  empire,  the  darkness 
seems  almost  unbroken  save  at  long  intervals.  A 
good  man  once  told  me  that  when  he  was  first  awak- 


13 J:  Missionary  Addresses. 

ened  he  longed  for  help,  but  only  knew  of  one  pray- 
ing man,  and  he  was  live  hundred  miles  distant.  I 
knew  a  Mohammedan  who  had  gone  from  place  to 
place  in  search  of  a  Christian  who  could  tell  him 
the  way  of  salvation,  and  a  whole  year  passed  be- 
fore he  succeeded  in  finding  the  kind  of  man  he 
sought.  A  country  in  which  God's  word  cannot  be 
obtained  is  of  all  possible  countries  the  most  desper- 
ately poor. 

3.  The  heathen,  like  Lazarus,  is  sorely  afflicted. 
The  poor  neglected  beggar  was  full  of  sores.  The 
non-Christian  nations  of  the  world  carry  plague-spots 
which  tell  of  their  desperate  condition,  and  which 
belong  to  them  as  distinct  from  those  nations  which 
have  been  brought  in  a  large  measure  under  Christian 
influence.  The  missionary  of  the  present  day  has  a 
wide  choice  of  fields,  but  go  where  he  may  he  goes 
into  the  midst  of  sorrow  and  suffering.  Tribes  and 
nations  are  still  found  who  are  given  to  cannibal 
practices.  Only  few  weeks  ago  I  was  busy  collecting 
information  about  Malaysia,  and  the  most  needy 
fields  in  that  vast  region,  when  I  was  startled  to  dis- 
cover that  the  people  in  Sumatra,  who  killed  and  ate 
two  American  missionaries  fifty  years  ago,  are  canni- 
bals still.  The  cruelties  of  the  debased  heathenism 
of  Africa  are  only  too  well  known.  But  we  need  not 
seek  the  lowest  forms  of  paganism  in  order  to  lay 
bare  the  festering  sores  which  appear  in  every  part  of 
the  world  where  Christ  is  not  known.  Tn  India,  we 
have  in  Brahmanism  the  most  intellectual,  the  most 
polished,  the  most  thoroughly  organized,  and  in  its 
origin,  with  one  exception,  the  most  pure  of  all  non- 
Christian    faiths.      But    what    are    its    fruits  ?    The 


The  Beggar  .at  our  Gate.  135 

burning  of  widows  as  a  religious  duty  has  only  been 
suppressed  by  the  strong  arm  of  a  Christian  govern- 
ment, and  would  be  resumed  to-morrow  if  the  restrain- 
ing power  of  that  arm  were  withdrawn.  Among  the 
most  noted  Indian  statesmen  of  the  present  century 
wras  Sir  Jung  Bahadur,  late  Prime  Minister  of  Nepaul. 
He  visited  Europe,  was  knighted  by  the  Queen  and 
enjoyed  the  society  of  leading  statesmen  of  England. 
And  yet  when  the  death  of  this  great  man  occurred, 
but  a  few  years  ago,  in  an  independent  state  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  British  law,  four  of  his  wretched 
wTives  were  burned  alive  on  the  funeral  pyre!  And 
this,  be  it  noted,  was  not  done  in  spite  of  religion, 
but  in  the  name  of  religion,  and  with  its  special 
sanction. 

Less  than  twenty  years  ago  the  practice  of  hook- 
swinging,  that  is,  suspending  living  men  by  steel 
hooks  passed  through  the  muscles  of  the  back,  was 
suppressed  by  a  government  order,  and  this  horrible 
custom  would  be  revived  at  once,  even  in  Calcutta 
itself,  if  the  order  were  withdrawn.  This  too  was 
distinctively  a  religious  practice,  done  under  the 
special  sanction  of  the  most  powerful  heathen  system 
in  the  world.  And  in  the  name  of  the  same  religion 
devotion  is  every-where  distorted  into  cruelty  and 
self-torture,  and  the  way  of  supposed  holiness  made 
a  long  course  of  physical  degradation,  and  often  of 
moral  corruption  as  well.  I  have  known  men  who 
wrere  regarded  as  holy  in  a  peculiar  sense,  men  before 
whom  hundreds  prostrated  themselves  in  profound 
reverence,  who  were  saluted  with  the  utmost  respect 
by  every  passer-by,  whose  sole  title  to  moral  and  re- 
ligious superiority  lay  in  the  fact  that  they  disfigured 


136  Missionary  Addresses. 

their  persons,  went  half-naked,  and  ate  every  loath- 
some and  disgusting  thing  which  might  be  offered  to 
them  for  food. 

Nor  is  it  in  exceptional  cases  that  we  find  these 
plague-spots.  The  enforced  widowhood  of  India  is  a 
cruel  blight  which  affects  millions  of  innocent  victims. 
Child  marriage,  polygamy,  the  degradation  of  women, 
and  in  some  sections  infanticide,  all  are  so  many  fes- 
tering sores  which  belong  to  heathenism  alone.  JSTor 
need  we  confine  our  attention  to  Brahmanism,  with  its 
many  ramifications,  all  combining  to  build  up  the 
great  system  popularly  known  as  Hinduism.  Moham- 
medanism is  no  better.  It  is  essentially  a  religion  of 
cruel  intolerance,  of  war  and  rapine,  the  ally  of  the 
slave-trader,  and  the  abettor  of  vice.  The  Hindu  is 
a  better  man  than  the  Mohammedan,  so  far  as  the 
general  average  is  concerned,  and  the  nations  profess- 
ing the  faith  of  Islam  are  as  helplessly  wretched  and 
appeal  as  strongly  to  our  Christian  sympathies  as  any 
people  in  the  world.  Nor  can  it  be  said  of  the 
Buddhists,  the  followers  of  that  much-landed  faith 
which  some  would  exalt  to  a  pinnacle  higher  than 
Christianity,  that  it  presents  its  subjects  in  any 
better  plight  than  other  members  of  the  great  non- 
Christian  world.  Burmah  with  its  Buddhism  is, 
morally  and  socially,  more  benighted  than  Bengal 
with  its  Brahmanism.  China  sits  in  a  darkness  as 
deep  and  dense  as  India  ever  knew,  and  her  patient 
millions  have  as  strong  a  claim  upon  the  Christian 
world  as  the  people  of  any  nation  on  the  face  of  the 
globe. 

4.  This  sufferer  at  our  gate  is  not  only  wretched, 
hut  helpless.     JNo  heathen  nation   can  elevate    itself 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  137 

morally  above  its  present  level.  There  is  absolutely 
no  help  in  any  of  them — any  possible  help  must  come 
from  without.  Among  all  the  non-Christian  nations 
of  the  globe,  not  one  has  elevated  itself,  in  a  moral  or 
religious  sense,  one  inch  above  the  position  occupied 
when  Christ  lived  on  earth.  So  far  from  it,  we  may 
indeed  doubt  whether  any  one  of  these  nations  has 
held  its  own  in  this  respect.  India  and  China  have 
both  most  certainly  retrograded  during  this  period. 
Any  slight  advance  that  can  be  pointed  out  will  be 
found  to  have  occurred  since  the  contact  of  the  nation 
in  question  with  the  Christian  world.  The  golden 
age  of  every  religion  except  Christianity  is  in  the  re- 
mote past,  and  deterioration  is  a  law  which  works 
every-where  outside  the  pale  of  Christian  light  and 
truth. 

The  great  nations  of  the  heathen  world,  no  less 
than  the  degraded  tribes  of  Africa  and  New  Guinea, 
are  in  a  state  of  absolute  moral  helplessness,  and  must 
be  lifted  up  if  they  ever  rise  at  all.  This  is  not 
owing  to  the  fact  that  there  is  any  thing  peculiar  in 
the  character  of  these  nations,  but  simply  to  the  fact 
that  they  belong  to  the  human  race.  A  great  truth, 
affecting  alike  individuals  and  nations,  was  spoken 
through  the  ancient  prophet  when  God  said,  "O 
Israel,  thou  hast  destroyed  thyself,  but  in  me  is  thy 
help.';  Every  human  soul  must  be  lifted  up  out  of 
sin  and  error  by  a  power  external  to  itself,  and  this 
law  applies  to  the  nation  as  to  the  individual.  Pow- 
erful corporations  may  build  railroads,  and  extend 
telegraphs,  all  through  India  and  China,  and  every 
appliance  of  modern  civilization  may  be  transplanted 
•  to  those  regions,  and  in  this  way  a  little  material  ele- 


138  Missionary  Addresses. 

vation  may  be  effected  from  without,  but  the  moral 
elevation  of  the  people  must  be  effected  by  the  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ.  These  great  nations  will  be  the 
world's  paupers  for  all  time  to  come,  unless  this 
mighty  elevating  agency  is  introduced,  and  the  duty 
of  doing  this  devolves  upon  the  disciples  of  the 
world's  Saviour. 

We  should  never  for  a  moment  forget  that  but  for 
the  Gospel  we  ourselves  would  still  be  groping  our 
way  through  a  region  of  dense  moral  darkness,  and 
no  doubt  living  very  much  as  our  ancestors  did  before 
the  light  of  Christian  truth  dawned  upon  them.  It 
was  not  by  their  own  right  arm  that  the  Anglo-Saxon 
nations  have  achieved  the  proud  pre-eminence  which 
they  hold  in  the  civilized  world.  God  has  lifted 
them  up  and  given  them  empire  and  power  because 
they  have  received,  and  held,  and  defended  his  word, 
and  because  they  have  been  true  to  certain  great 
principles  of  Christian  liberty.  There  is  some  danger 
that  as  a  race  we  may  become  vain  and  self-sufficient, 
and  forget  that  we  too  were  once  a  beggared  people, 
helpless  and  impoverished,  and  that  God  had  mercy 
on  us  and  sent  us  that  Gospel  which  alone  can  elevate 
and  enrich  a  nation.  We  have  very  little,  indeed,  of 
which  we  can  boast  apart  from  Christianity.  Our 
ancestors  made  but  slow  progress  until  they  came  in 
contact  with  Christian  influence,  and  if  they  had 
been  left  to  themselves  they  would  probably  have  re- 
mained for  many  centuries  a  race  of  "  naked  savages 
wandering  in  the  forests  of  northern  Europe."  So 
far  from  allowing  ourselves  to  be  puffed  up  by  our 
great  advancement,  we  of  all  others  should  be  forward 
to  acknowledge  that  we  owe  all  to  Christian  truth  and 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  139 

Christian  institutions.     We  lay  for  centuries  in  utter 
helplessness  till  God  lifted  us  up. 

5.  Having  thus  noticed  the  condition  of  the  hapless 
sufferer  at  our  gate,  it  may  be  well  to  pause  for  a  mo- 
ment to  examine  our  own  sumptuous  home.  The 
Americans,  of  all  people  in  the  world,  are  the  best 
housed.  They  are  the  palace-dwellers  of  the  earth.  As 
a  nation  they  have  almost  rebuilt  their  homes  during 
the  past  twenty-five  years.  They  are  rapidly  merging 
comfort  into  luxury.  Rich  fools  vie  with  the  royal 
spendthrifts  of  the  Old  World  in  squandering  money 
upon  useless  palaces.  The  craze  becomes  infectious, 
and  in  every  town  and  village  men  are  busy  burying 
money  in  walls  of  brick  and  stone.  Within  our 
homes  we  fare  sumptuously,  and  dress  expensively, 
if  not  elegantly.  Many  fashionable  ladies  in  New 
York  society,  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  chang- 
ing fashions  of  the  day,  spend  as  much  in  dress  and 
jewelry  as  would  feed  and  clothe  and  educate  one 
thousand  orphans  in  a  heathen  land.  A  devotee  of 
fashionable  pleasure  at  Saratoga  or  Long  Branch  squan- 
ders as  much  in  unworthy  pursuits  as  would  feed  and 
clothe  the  people  of  a  dozen  villages  in  India.  ]Sror 
is  it  the  vain  man  or  woman  of  pleasure  alone  who 
fares  thus  sumptuously.  The  average  American  every- 
where sits  down  to  a  royal  repast,  as  compared  with 
the  mass  of  men  in  other  lands.  We  know  no  real 
poverty.  Our  artificial  and  feverish  style  of  living 
misleads  man}-,  who  fancy  they  are  poor  because  they 
desire  many  things  which  the}7  cannot  get;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  people  of  any  one  of  our  American 
States  waste  enough  to  feed  a  province  in  the  Eastern 
world.  Famine,  or  even  scarcity  worth  the  name,  has 
10 


1  tO  Mission  ah  y  Addresses. 

never  been  known  within  our  borders.  Wealth  ac- 
cumulates at  a  rate  never  known  before  in  the  world's 
history,  and  certainly  not  witnessed  among  the  people 
of  any  other  nation. 

The  enormous  wealth  of  the  United  States  can  be 
expressed  in  figures,  but  these  figures  convey  no  cor- 
rect idea  to  an  ordinary  mind.  Beyond  a  certain 
point  a  group  of  figures  becomes  merely  an  arithmet- 
ical expression.  The  mind  fails  to  grasp  it.  Like 
the  measurement  of  the  celestial  spaces,  we  speak  of 
vast  distances,  but  cannot  conceive  of  the  ratio  of 
such  a  distance  to  a  league  on  the  earth's  surface. 
The  wealth  of  this  country  has  long  since  marched 
beyond  the  point  where  the  mind  can  grasp  its  ex- 
tent. Both  in  resources  and  developed  wealth  Amer- 
ica is  the  richest  country  on  the  globe.  Of  the  earth's 
inhabited  surface  our  people  could  buy  up  two  thirds, 
and  have  many  millions,  and  even  billions,  left.  And 
this  wealth  is  increasing  steadily  and  rapidly.  Every 
week  six  million  dollars  are  added  to  the  enormous 
aggregate — enough  money  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
a  state  or  empire.  Truly  may  it  be  said  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  that  they  are  palace-dwellers,  that  they 
fare  sumptuously,  that  they  are  clothed  in  rich  at- 
tire, and  that  they  abound  in  every  form  of  material 
wealth. 

6.  We  must  remember  that  this  heathen  sufferer  is 
lying  at  our  very  gate.  When  the  missionary  enter- 
prise was  first  begun  every  appeal  was  made  in  be- 
half of  a  distant  people.  The  missionary  going 
abroad  started  as  if  to  another  planet.  It  added 
much  to  the  difficulty  of  the  undertaking,  and  no 
doubt  lessened  the  force  of  the  obligation  to  evan- 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  lil 

gelize  the  heathen,  to  have  to  go  so  far  to  find  them. 
But  all  this  has  been  wonderfully  changed  within  the 
present  generation.  The  heathen  seem  to  be  just 
outside  our  gate.  God  has  been  bringing  the  nations 
closer  together,  opening  up  swift  communication  be- 
tween them,  sending  steamers  across  every  sea,  build- 
ing lines  of  rail  across  great  continents,  piercing 
mountains,  exploring  the  wilderness,  subduing  the 
desert,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  messengers  of 
peace.  The  missionary  hastening  to  his  holy  war  in 
the  East  plunges  through  the  Alps  in  twenty-seven 
minutes,  thinking  meanwhile  of  the  long  and  painful 
struggles  of  Hannibal  and  Napoleon  to  scale  the 
heights  above.  When  I  first  went  to  India  I  was 
one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  days  at  sea.  When  I 
last  went  I  made  the  journey  in  twenty-seven  days ; 
just  one  hundred  days  less  than  at  first.  A  missionary 
goes  to  China  or  Japan,  to  India  or  Africa,  with  less 
exposure,  in  less  time,  and  with  less  expense  than 
would  have  been  involved  in  sending  him  to  points 
on  our  frontier  less  than  a  generation  ago.  The  most 
distant  point  on  the  globe  is  probably  as  near  to  us 
to-day  as  the  towns  on  our  own  Pacific  coast  were 
thirty  years  ago. 

Nor  is  it  only  in  the  facility  with  which  mission- 
aries can  be  sent  to  the  heathen  that  their  nearness  to 
us  can  be  made  to  appear.  We  can  reach  ont  our 
hand  and  minister  to  them  almost  without  an  effort. 
You  can  relieve  the  want  of  a  poor  man  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges  as  easily,  and  almost  as  quickly,  as 
Dives  could  have  sent  out  a  breakfast  to  Lazarus 
sitting  at  his  gate.  If  you  wish  to  send  five  dollars 
to  Lucknow  you  can  do  so  by  simply  paying  in  the 


1 12  Missionary  Addresses. 

money  at  the  post-office,  with  as  little  trouble  and  no 
greater  expense  than  it  would  have  cost  you  to  post  a 
letter  to  Cincinnati  less  than  fifty  years  ago.  You 
can  help  these  people,  can  do  it  easily,  and  can  do  it 
quickly.  For  all  practical  purposes  you  are  as  near 
to  them  as  Dives  was  to  Lazarus.  They  are  within 
touch,  their  imploring  gaze  is  fixed  upon  you,  their 
sighs  and  groans  are  falling  upon  your  ears,  and  it 
will  be  impossible  to  pass  them  by  and  be  held  guilt- 
less in  God's  final  reckoning  with  you. 

7.  This  nearness  imposes  obligation.  The  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan  teaches  how  to  discover  per- 
sonal obligation.  Three  men  came  along  and  saw 
the  poor  wounded  traveler  by  the  way-side.  Two 
passed  over  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  road,  and 
slipped  by  without  even  a  pitying  look  for  him.  The 
other  went  at  once  and  devoted  himself  to  his  relief. 
The  only  obligation  in  the  case  of  each  was  the  fact 
of  contact  with  a  needy  member  of  the  race.  It  was 
the  obligation  which  nearness  imposes.  The  priest 
shrugging  his  shoulders  and  hastening  by,  and  the  rich 
man  closing  his  door  and  gathering  his  purple  robe 
about  him,  were  guilty  of  the  same  sin.  They  needed 
no  one  to  expound  their  duty  to  them  ;  the  sight  of 
a  suffering  fellow-being  sufficed  to  do  that.  They 
sawT,  knew,  and  felt  the  obligation  thus  set  before 
them,  and,  neglecting  it,  became  guilty  of  awful  sin 
against  God  and  man. 

If  this  view  be  correct,  what  are  we  to  say  of 
Christian  America,  and  especially  of  the  Christian 
Churches  of  America,  if  the  heathen  at  our  very 
gate  are  allowed  to  suffer  on  unrelieved,  shrouded  in 
darkness,  wearied  with  grievous  burdens,  and  strug- 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  143 

gling  m  vam  attempts  to  escape  from  the  hard  lot 
which  has  befallen  them  ?  Can  we  close  our  eyes  to 
the  sight  of  their  misery,  and  stop  our  ears  to  their 
bitter  cry,  and  be  guiltless?  Can  we,  dare  we,  dream 
that  there  is  one  law  for  the  merciless  Levite  and  an- 
other for  the  selfish  Christian  ?  Can  we,  dare  we, 
assume  that  the  rich  man  of  the  parable  was  a  heart- 
less worldling,  while  we,  acting  in  the  same  way,  are 
devout  and  faithful  Christians?  We  cannot  do  it. 
We  cannot  evade  our  plain  duty  and  be  innocent. 
The  sighs  of  a  sorrowing,  suffering  world  float  in  upon 
ns,  and  our  wealth  and  luxury  become  henceforth  our 
condemnation  unless  we  go  forth  in  the  great  Master's 
name  to  minister  to  those  whom  his  providence  has 
laid  at  our  doors. 

Both  the  American  nation  and  the  American 
Church  need  to  ponder  well  this  stupendous  obliga- 
tion which  God  lays  upon  them.  It  has  been  often 
said  of  late  by  thoughtful  Christian  men  that  the 
greatest  peril  of  our  nation  at  the  present  hour  is 
found  in  its  wealth.  No  school  of  vice  can  develop 
so  heartless,  and  worthless,  and  vile  a  type  of  human- 
ity as  that  of  wealthy  idleness.  Poor  old  Dives  is 
often  spoken  of  as  a  comparatively  harmless  man. 
He  may  have  been  such  a  man,  but  if  so  he  misrep- 
resented his  class.  Take  the  wealthy  idlers  of  New 
York,  London,  and  Paris  to-day,  and  settle  them  in  a 
community  by  themselves,  with  no  restraints  of  any 
kind  upon  them  save  such  as  they  themselves  see  fit 
to  impose,  and  in  less  than  three  years  you  will  see 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  reproduced  on  earth.  Now, 
this  school  of  wealthy  idleness  is  turning  out  its  grad- 
uates upon  American  society  in  alarming   numbers, 


114  Missionary  Addresses. 

and  here  is  a  source  of  peril  to  the  nation  which  has 
hardly  yet  commenced  to  attract  attention.  A  fear- 
ful social  leprosy  threatens  us  at  this  point,  and  the 
danger  is  imminent. 

But  the  danger  which  arises  from  an  excess  of 
wealth,  especially  from  its  rapid  accumulation,  is  not 
confined  to  the  few  who  become  enormously  rich.  A 
nation  of  eager  money-seekers  is  simply  a  nation  of 
idolaters.  That  wealth  is  sought  too  eagerly  and 
prized  too  highly  in  America  cannot  for  a  moment 
be  doubted.  With  all  our  affected  contempt  for  arti- 
ficial distinctions  in  society,  the  man  of  wealth  is 
treated  with  a  deference  which  is  withheld  from  the 
man  of  culture,  and  still  more  from  the  man  of  moral 
worth.  The  world  sets  up  and  maintains  its  own 
standard,  and  no  purely  Christian  influence  can  com- 
pare with  it  in  its  effect  on  what  we  call  society. 
Two  ladies  might  be  named  in  New  York  whose 
word  in  the  social  world  of  that  great  city  has  ten 
times  the  weight  of  the  word  of  Jesus  Christ.  They 
are  excellent  ladies  in  their  way,  no  doubt,  and  yet 
the  fact  that  such  an  influence  can  be  secured,  and 
retained,  and  used  by  the  power  of  wealth  is  a  phe- 
nomenon which  deserves  very  careful  study.  It  is 
but  an  illustration  of  a  general  tendency,  and  a  tend- 
ency which  bodes  no  good  to  the  highest  and  best 
interests  of  the  nation. 

Wealth  will  debase  and  degrade  the  nation  unless 
it  is  held  and  used  as  a  sacred  trust  from  God.  When 
God  blesses  a  nation  it  is  that  he  may  make  it  a 
blessing  to  other  nations.  The  promise  given  to 
Abraham  contained  the  statement  of  a  great  law : 
"  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will  bless 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  145 

thee,  .  .  .  and  thou  shalt  be  a  blessing."  God  has 
no  pupose  in  raising  up  a  great  nation  in  this  west- 
ern world  save  to  help  in  the  general  elevation  and 
redemption  of  the  race.  National  selfishness  is  like 
all  selfishness,  blind,  and  miscalculating,  and  self- 
deceiving.  The  nation  that  loves  all  other  nations, 
that  dares  govern  itself  and  direct  its  policy  by  Chris- 
tian principles,  will  stand  foremost  in  the  world,  will 
achieve  the  highest  destiny,  and  live  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  highest  possible  measure  of  blessing.  America 
is  debtor  to  all  the  wide  world,  and  God  expects  her 
to  go  forth  to  the  suffering  peoples  who  wait  at  her 
gate,  and  minister  to  them  freely  of  the  great  sub- 
stance with  which  God  has  intrusted  her. 

But  if  a  sense  of  obligation  should  rest  upon  the 
nation,  how  much  more  vividly  should  it  be  realized 
by  the  Church !  As  Christians,  we  cannot  misun- 
derstand our  duty.  We  have  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
we  enjoy  the  light  of  God's  word,  we  live  in  full 
sight  of  eternity,  we  know  the  infinite  value  of  eter- 
nal things,  we  know  how  frail  and  fleeting  are  all  the 
tilings  of  earth,  and  we  are  the  accredited  represent- 
atives of  Christ  on  earth.  As  such  we  cannot,  we 
dare  not,  close  our  doors  and  shut  ourselves  up  in  our 
Christian  homes  while  a  wailing  world  lies  in  help- 
less wretchedness  outside  our  gate-way.  We  have  no 
time  for  discussion,  no  time  for  speculation,  no 
time  for  any  thing  but  immediate  and  earnest  action. 
Our  whole  resources,  our  best  energies,  our  most 
cherished  hopes,  our  very  lives,  must  be  freely  given 
up  at  the  call  of  such  a  sufferer.  Not  another  hour 
of  delay  can  be  justified,  not  another  excuse  of  any 
kind  can  be  admitted,  but  the  whole  great  Christian 


140  Missionary  Addresses. 

family  must  make  haste  to  the  front  gate,  and  at  once 
begin  to  minister  to  the  hapless  stranger  lying  there. 

Many  good  men  have  been  intensely  interested  in 
the  discussions  of  the  past  few  years  in  relation  to  the 
ultimate  fate  of  the  heathen.  If  theologians  or  spec- 
ulative thinkers  wish  to  spend  time  upon  inquiries 
of  this  kind  it  is  not  for  me  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
them,  but  as  a  missionary  I  must  confess  to  a  feeling 
of  something  like  impatience  when  I  see  the  energies 
of  strong  Christian  men  diverted  to  a  side  issue  of 
this  kind.  Dives  has  many  sins  to  answer  for,  no 
doubt,  but  it  is  not  said  of  him  that  lie  called  in 
learned  friends  to  discuss  the  future  probabilities  of 
the  poor  beggar  who  lay  at  his  gate.  The  beggar 
was  there,  was  there  in  his  misfortune  and  misery, 
and  this  sufficed  to  teach  Dives  his  duty.  So  with  us 
as  Christians.  A  heathen  world  lies  at  our  very  gate, 
lies  there  in  darkness,  and  wretchedness,  and  helpless- 
ness. Sin  has  wrought  the  ruin,  and  God  makes  it 
ours  to  save.  Let  this  suffice.  God  can  be  trusted 
to  administer  his  own  judgment.  Let  it  be  our  con- 
cern to  save  this  heathen  world.  In  all  seriousness  I 
state  it  as  my  profound  conviction  that  it  is  less 
ground  of  alarm  for  the  heathen  who  die  without  the 
Gospel  than  for  Christians  who  deliberately  disobey 
God  by  refusing  to  give  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen 
for  whom  Christ  died,  and  to  whom  they  are  com- 
manded to  carry  it. 

It  was  an  appalling  surprise  to  the  rich  man,  when 
he  lifted  up  his  eyes  in  his  place  of  torment,  to  see 
the  poor  beggar,  whom  he  had  seen  so  constantly  at 
his  gate,  enjoying  the  blissful  rest  from  which  he  was 
himself  excluded  forever.     It  will  be  a  joyful  sur- 


The  Beggar  at  our  Gate.  147 

prise  to  many  faithful  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ,  when 
admitted  to  the  everlasting  rest  above,  to  recognize 
close  beside  them  many  a  redeemed  soul  from  the 
throng  which  lay  outside  their  gate  on  earth.  In  this 
work,  perhaps  as  in  no  other,  we  can  realize  what  the 
Saviour  taught  in  the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward. 
We  can  so  spend  and  be  spent,  so  minister  to  souls  in 
need,  so  go  forth  or  send  forth  the  hapless  stranger 
before  our  door,  that  the  reward  of  the  just  shall  be 
secured  ;  and  when  we  get  our  release  from  earth  and 
go  up  to  find  our  bright  home  in  the  everlasting  hab- 
itations prepared  for  us  in  the  city  of  light  we  shall 
be  received  by  a  great  multitude  of  those  who  through 
our  efforts  shall  have  been  lifted  up,  and  fed,  and 
clothed,  and  rescued  from  sin's  low  estate,  and  made 
adopted  children  of  the  Great  King.  The  noblest 
work  ever  assigned  to  men  or  angels  is  set  before  the 
Church  to-day.  May  it  be  ours  to  recognize  our 
golden  opportunity,  and  in  our  Master's  name  to  go 
forth  to  seek,  lift  up,  and  save  the  suffering,  despair- 
ing, dying  heathen  at  our  gate ! 


Ii3  Missionary  Addresses. 


THE  NEW  MISSIONARY  ERA. 

A  GENERAL  conviction  seems  to  have  taken 
hold  of  earnest  Christians,  in  both  Europe  and 
America,  that  the  great  missionary  enterprise  is  about 
to  enter  upon  a  new  era.  The  most  remarkable  thing 
about  this  conviction  is  that  it  is  as  spontaneous  as  it 
is  general.  No  single  individual,  and  no  particular 
body  of  Christians,  can  be  said  to  have  had  a  leading 
part  in  producing  it.  Like  the  coming  of  all  great 
movements  of  the  kind,  like  the  dawning  of  the  morn- 
ing, or  the  coming  of  the  warm  spring-time,  it  appears 
every-where,  and  heralds  its  approach  by  a  thousand 
tokens  which  fill  the  Christian  mind  and  heart  with 
new  courage  and  hope.  Every-where  Christians  are 
awaking  to  a  sense  of  greater  responsibility  in  connec- 
tion with  this  work.  Every-where  young  people  are 
asking  to  be  enlisted  as  missionaries,  and  every-where 
God's  stewards  are  beginning  to  bring  forth  treasure 
for  the  support  of  the  work  on  a  scale  which  has 
never  been  witnessed  before.  A  spirit  of  hopeful- 
ness, of  expectancy,  and  of  earnest  devotion  begins  to 
manifest  itself,  and  many  think  they  see  tokens  of  a 
coming  movement  which  bids  fair  to  assume  the  pro- 
portions of  a  world's  crusade. 

It  is  a  fitting  time  for  us  to  expect  such  a  move- 
ment as  this.  We  are,  as  has  often  been  remarked  of 
late,  just  closing  up  the  last  chapter  of  the  first  century 
of  modern  missions.       About  a  century  ago  William 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  14D 

Carey  set  forth  upon  his  great  mission  to  the  East, 
and  although  lie  was  not  the  first  Protestant  mission- 
ary who  engaged  in  this  work,  he  was  the  most  con- 
spicuous man  of  his  era  in  this  department  of  Chris- 
tian enterprise,  and  the  most  truly  representative 
man  in  all  the  earlier  mission  fields  of  the  world. 
The  modern  missionary  movement  grew  out  of  the 
great  spiritual  awakening  of  the  last  century,  and  it 
speedily  took  root  wherever  that  awakening  had  pre- 
pared a  way  for  it.  Some  of  the  great  Protest- 
ant churches  were  slower  than  others  in  embarking  in 
this  great  undertaking,  but  practically  we  may  say 
with  truth  that  the  movement,  as  a  whole,  is  just  clos- 
ing the  first  century  of  its  history,  and  that  the  time 
is  singularly  opportune  for  a  new,  more  widely  ex- 
tended, more  vigorous,  and  more  determined  effort  to 
Christianize  all  the  nations  of  the  globe.  "We  ought 
not,  no,  not  for  a  moment,  to  despise  the  labors  of  our 
fathers,  to  belittle  the  results  thus  far  achieved,  or  to 
discard  the  lessons  which  have  been  learned,  but  none 
the  less  we  should  open  our  eyes  to  the  inspiring  fact 
that  God  summons  his  people  every-where  to  a  new 
consecration  to  this  great  work,  to  enlarged  plans,  to 
more  systematic  labor,  to  a  very  large  increase  of 
workers,  to  a  greater  outpouring  of  treasure,  and  to  an 
immediate  advance  all  along  the  line  of  the  hosts  of 
Christ's  army  upon  the  strongholds  of  the  prince  of 
darkness. 

Before  considering  the  new  claims  which  are  made 
upon  us,  the  character  of  the  new  era  upon  which 
we  are  entering,  it  may  be  well  to  examine  briefly 
the  nature  of  the  work  thus  far  accomplished,  and  set 
before  us  in  as  clear  a  light  as  possible  the  results 


150  Missionary  Addresses. 

obtained 
therefore. 


obtained    during  the   era  now  closing.     Let  ns  ask 


I.  What  has  heen  done  thus  far? — Very  much 
has  been  done,  and  done  in  many  ways.  The  hum- 
ble beginnings  of  great  enterprises  may  not  always 
attract  the  admiration  of  men  as  much  as  subse- 
quent achievements,  but  they  are  none  the  less  im- 
portant, and  those  engaged  in  them  will  secure  in  the 
next  world  the  reward  which  is  often  withheld  from 
them  here.  The  past  century  has  been  one  of  pre- 
paratory work,  much  of  it  experimental,  and,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  much  of  it  fruitless  ;  but  it  has 
all  been  a  necessary  part  of  a  gigantic  enterprise  of 
this  kind,  and  as  absolutely  indispensable  to  it  as  a 
foundation  is  to  a  house.  Looking  over  these  hun- 
dred years  we  can  easily  see  the  outline  of  what  has 
been  done. 

1.  The  Churches  of  the  Protestant  world  have  been 
aroused.  A  little  more  than  a  century  ago  they  knew 
very  little,  and  cared  nothing,  about  the  heathen. 
The  average  Christian  of  the  last  century  had  no 
more  thought  of  personal  duty  owing  to  the  nations 
sitting  in  darkness,  than  he  had  of  obligation  to 
support  Mohammedan  mosques  or  Roman  Catholic 
churches.  It  was  no  easy  task  to  rouse  Christians, 
even  good  Christians,  a  century  ago  to  a  realization 
of  this  dut}'.  It  required  line  upon  line,  patient, 
faithful  teaching  in  both  homes  and  pulpits,  and  actual 
labor  performed  abroad,  to  secure  even  a  moderate 
degree  of  attention  to  the  Saviour's  great  command- 
ment. We  of  the  present  day  can  hardly  understand 
what  an  obstacle  was  presented  to  the  first  leaders  of 
this  movement  by  the  almost  universal  spiritual  inertia 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  151 

which  they  encountered.  The  idea  was  new,  the  proj- 
ect seemed  wild,  the  heathen  seemed  like  dwellers  of 
another  planet,  and  it  was  a  task  of  surpassing  diffi- 
culty first  to  rouse,  and  then  to  hold,  the  attention  of 
the  Church  while  this  claim  was  presented.  But  this 
work  has  been  done.  We  of  the  present  day  are 
understood,  and  gain  an  immediate  hearing,  when  we 
come  forward  to  plead  for  the  heathen.  The  whole 
world  knows  what  the  missionary  enterprise  is,  and 
for  this  we  are  indebted  chiefly  to  the  noble  pioneers 
who  were  called  of  God  two  and  three  generations 
ago  to  act  as  the  first  heralds  of  this,  the  greatest  en- 
terprise of  the  Christian  era 

2.  The  past  century  has  been  a  demonstration  of 
possibilities.  To  many  things  which  were  urged  a 
century  ago  in  behalf  of  missions  to  the  heathen,  the 
universal  response  was,  "  Impossible."  If  the  con- 
version of  a  pagan  was  spoken  of,  men  were  quick  to 
assert  that  an  ignorant,  degraded  pagan  could  not  be- 
come an  intelligent,  conscientious  Christian.  Even  in 
our  day  this  form  of  incredulity  lingers  in  the  Chris- 
tian churches,  and  returned  missionaries  are  too  often 
asked  if  converts  in  heathen  lands  become  genuine 
Christians.  Then,  when  this  objection  was  answered 
- — when  it  was  proven  that  the  Gospel  was  adapted  to 
the  condition  of  all  human  beings — unbelief  cried  out 
that  even  if  individuals  could  be  saved  nations  could 
not  be  Christianized,  and  that  the  dream  of  a  con- 
verted world  was  a  wild  freak  of  the  imagination. 
And  again,  when  this  objection  was  met  in  its  turn, 
it  was  said  that  men  from  Christian  lands,  with  a 
strange  language  and  a  strange  civilization,  could 
never  become  the  successful  agents  by  whom  such  a 


152  Missionary  Addresses. 

mighty  work  could  be  accomplished.  Thus  one  ob- 
jection followed  another,  one  supposed  impossibility 
was  piled  upon  another,  until  it  was  made  to  seem  as 
if  the  proposed  work  was  utterly  and  wholly  beyond 
the  range  of  moral  possibilities.  But  now  all  this  is 
changed.  A  hundred  years  of  labor  have  demon- 
strated the  fact  that  men  of  every  clime  and  every 
creed,  of  every  language  and  every  type  of  civiliza- 
tion, accept  the  same  Gospel,  upon  the  same  terms,  and 
with  practically  the  same  results.  Far  off  among  the 
mission  fields  of  heathen  lands  may  be  found  Christian 
disciples  who  are  as  saintly  and  as  devoted  as  any  men 
who  walk  the  earth.  In  like  manner  the  possibility  of 
saving  the  nations  has  been  demonstrated.  God,  by 
his  providence,  led  many  of  the  earliest  missionaries  to 
isolated  communities,  such  as  the  Sandwich  Islanders, 
and  other  little  island  tribes  and  nations  in  the  South 
Pacific,  and  there  had  them  demonstrate,  upon  a  small 
scale,  before  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  fact  that  a 
whole  people  could  be  turned  from  a  life  of  hideous 
vice  and  error  to  one  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian 
virtue.  That  which  has  been  done  upon  a  small 
scale  can  be  done  with  equal  success  upon  a  larger 
scale.  Madagascar  is  showing  how  this  may  be  real- 
ized, and  Japan  may  follow  at  almost  any  day.  When 
the  American  missionaries  succeeded  in  Christian- 
izing the  Hawaiian  people  they  demonstrated  the  pos- 
sibility of  converting  the  four  hundred  millions  of 
China,  or,  in  short,  of  Christianizing  any  and  every 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

3.  Another  great  work  accomplished  during  the 
past  century  has  been  that  of  testing  methods.  The 
work  to  be  done  was  the  same  in  all  lands,  but  in  dif- 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  153 

ferent  countries  it  was  placed  under  many  and  widely 
differing  conditions.  Each  type  of  civilization,  each 
system  of  error,  called  for  more  or  less  of  special 
adaptation  to  the  condition  in  which  the  people  were 
found.  Experiments  alone  can  determine  the  value 
of  many  forms  of  labor,  and  a  method  employed  in 
one  country  with  success  may  utterly  fail  in  another. 
An  immense  amount  of  work  of  this  kind  has  been 
done,  work  which  will  not  need  to  be  done  again,  be- 
cause nearly  every  possible  kind  of  method  has  been 
attempted  during  the  past  century,  and  in  most  cases 
it  only  remains  for  the  living  missionary  to  profit  by 
the  experience  of  those  who  have  gone  before  him. 
And  just  here  it  may  be  well  enough  to  say  that  much 
labor  which  has  worn  the  brand  of  failure  in  the  past 
was  not  really  done  in  vain.  It  is  worth  something 
to  demonstrate  by  actual  failure  that  a  certain  method 
is  unwise  or  impracticable,  and  it  is  well  worth  while 
to  remember  that  one  man's  failure  in  the  last  century 
may  mean  success  to  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  men  in 
our  own  day. 

4.  Another  great  work  accomplished  has  been  done 
in  the  way  of  laying  foundations  and  collecting  ma- 
terial for  future  campaigns.  The  organization  of  the 
first  little  church  in  a  heathen  nation  means  more  than 
the  ingathering  of  a  thousand  congregations  after  the 
first  one  has  been  formed.  The  literary  work  in- 
volved in  mastering  a  language,  and  in  many  cases 
reducing  it  to  writing,  elaborating  dictionaries  and 
grammars,  composing  hymns,  and  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  a  Christian  literature,  is  simply  enormous. 
This  preliminary  work  has  now  been  nearly  accom- 
plished, so  far  as  all  the  leading    languages   of  the 


1  jJr  Missionary  Addresses. 

world  are  concerned.  Not  less  than  six  hundred 
millions  of  the  race  have  had  God's  word  given  to 
them  in  their  own  tongues  during  the  past  hundred 
years.  And  then  we  must  remember  that  churches 
have  been  formed,  organizations  completed,  and 
formative  processes  begun  which  will  make  it  possible 
for  the  missionaries  of  the  coming  century  to  move 
nimbly  forward,  working  in  the  fields  prepared  for 
them,  following  the  methods  approved  for  them,  and 
building  upon  the  broad  and  deep  foundations  which 
the  hands  of  others  have  laid  for  them.  The  mis- 
sionary who  goes  to  India  or  China  now  ought  to  ac- 
complish more  in  five  years  than  the  men  of  the  last 
generation  did  in  fifteen  years.  Indeed,  he  ought  to 
do  much  more  than  this.  One  year  of  the  coming 
century  will  probably  be  worth  as  much  as  ten  of  the 
last,  and  this  enhanced  value  will  be  almost  wholly 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  labors  of  those  who  first 
entered  the  field  have  made  it  possible  for  the  men  of 
later  years  to  eclipse  the  small  measure  of  success 
achieved  by  them. 

II.  Let  us  next  look  at  the  new  era. 

A  new  century  will  soon  dawn  upon  us ;  a  new 
missionary  century  is  already  here.  In  what  respects 
will  it  differ  from  the  era  now  closing  ? 

1.  It  will  present  a  vastly  wider  field  to  the  mis- 
sionary. When  William  Carey  felt  called  to  go  forth 
into  the  great  eastern  world  to  preach  Christ  he  found 
almost  the  whole  of  that  world  sealed  against  him.  In 
all  the  vast  continent  of  Asia  there  were  not  fifty 
square  miles  freely  open  to  him  as  a  messenger  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Indeed,  at  that  not  very  remote  period  there 
were  but  two  or  three  little  spots  on  the  globe  where 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  155 

a  Christian  preacher  could  claim  the  right  to  preach, 
or  where  he  could  freely  distribute  God's  word. 
Three  of  five  great  continents  and  two  thirds  of  a 
fourth  were  sealed  against  God's  messengers  and 
God's  truth.  The  missionary  was  rigorously  excluded 
from  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  world,  from  the 
whole  Greek  Catholic  world,  from  the  whole  Buddhist 
world,  from  the  whole  Mohammedan  world,  from 
nearly  all  the  pagan  world,  and  only  admitted  to  parts 
of  Brahmanical  India  by  the  sufferance  of  the  rulers 
of  the  day. 

How  signally  all  this  is  changed  I  need  not  point 
out.  To-day  the  Christian  goes  almost  every-where, 
not  by  sufferance,  but  in  the  exercise  of  his  unchal- 
lenged right.  God  has  opened  the  gates  of  the  na- 
tions. Even  in  our  own  day  this  process  has  been 
going  on,  and  it  will  continue  to  go  on  till  the  last 
gate  has  been  unbarred  and  every  human  being 
brought  within  the  reach  of  the  precious  Gospel  of 
Christ.  This  gate-opening  process  has  never  at  any 
period  of  the  world's  history  been  so  active  as  in  our 
day.  Since  I  became  a  missionary,  less  than  thirty 
years  ago,  God  has  opened  a  door  of  access  to  not  less 
than  700,000,000  members  of  our  race. 

We  live  in  startling  times  ;  we  witness  the  march  of 
the  most  stupendous  events  ever  seen  in  the  world's 
history.  Changes  occur  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
And  the  end  is  not  yet.  The  world  fairly  quivers 
with  expectancy  as  8,000,000  armed  men,  terribly 
armed  too,  are  waiting  for  the  word  which  is  to  make 
rivers  of  blood  to  flow  in  Europe,  and  perhaps  in 
Asia  also.  What  changes  will  come  we  know  not, 
but  of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured :  every  change, 
11 


156  Missionary  Addresses. 

every  convulsion,  every  pulling  down  or  setting  up  of 
a  throne,  will  contribute  something  toward  the  final 
and  complete  enfranchisement  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

One  feature  of  this  enlargement  of  the  mission 
field  seldom  receives  any  notice,  and  yet  it  is  most  im- 
portant. It  is  one  thing  to  open  the  outer  gate  of  a 
nation  ;  it  is  quite  another  to  gain  access  to  communi- 
ties, and  especially  to  homes.  The  outer  gates  of 
China  were  opened  only  to  find  all  the  inner  doors, 
both  of  hearts  and  homes,  sealed  against  intruders. 
The  missionary  gained  access  to  India,  but  no  access 
to  the  people.  Caste,  prejudice,  fear,  and  national 
antipathy  stood  in  his  way.  Now  all  this  is  changed, 
or  changing.  Vast  communities  are  accessible  in  a 
way  not  known  even  a  few  years  ago.  In  both  India 
and  China  the  home  begins  to  open  to  strangers,  and 
the  people  are  reached.  Africa,  too.  is  wonderfully 
opening  what  might  be  called  her  inner  doors.  For 
ages  sealed  against  the  civilized  world  by  physical 
barriers,  real  or  imaginary,  her  gates  are  now  open, 
and  all  over  her  verdant  plateaus  are  found  tribes  and 
nations  waiting  to  extend  a  cordial  welcome  to  any 
missionary  coming  to  them  in  the  name  of  the  world's 
Redeemer.  And  every-where  it  is  the  same.  As  a 
country  is  entered  so  many  inner  doors  fly  open,  so 
many  inviting  fields  present  themselves,  that  each  so- 
ciety finds  itself  in  danger  of  being  overwhelmed 
with  work,  and  all  its  energies  absorbed  in  any  single 
country  which  it  enters. 

2.  The  new  era  will  be  one  of  gigantic  enterprises. 
God  is  setting  before  his  people  mightier  tasks  than 
have  ever  been  given  to  any  people  in  the  past.     In 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  157 

the  century  now  closing  the  conversion  of  a  tribe  has 
seemed  an  immense  undertaking ;  in  the  new  era  the 
conversion  of  an  empire  will  be  accepted  with  as  lit- 
tle misgiving.  Nor  is  it  in  the  magnitude  of  the 
undertaking  alone  that  the  difference  consists.  Fewer 
men  in  the  coming  era  will  be  expected  to  accomplish 
tenfold  greater  results  than  have  been  witnessed  in 
the  past.  Fifty  years  ago,  or  less,  a  force  of  fifty 
missionaries  were  employed  in  evangelizing  some 
island  groups  in  the  South  Pacific  containing  250,000 
inhabitants.  In  my  own  day  I  have  seen  twenty  men 
set  to  the  task  of  evangelizing  17,000,000,  and  it  may 
be  noticed  that  experienced  missionaries  often  ask  for 
men  at  the  rate  of  one  or  two  per  million  of  the  peo- 
ple to  be  Christianized. 

Nor  is  it  alone  in  the  extent  of  the  work  to  be  done 
that  its  magnitude  will  consist.  Giant  systems  of  er- 
ror must  be  utterly  overthrown.  To  induce  cannibals 
to  abandon  their  rude  forms  of  worship  may  be  diffi- 
cult enough,  but  it  is  as  nothing  to  the  task  of  pull- 
ing down  the  strongholds  of  systems  which  have 
been  built  up  and  strengthened  through  long  centu- 
ries, systems  which  have  rooted  themselves  in  the  his- 
tory and  traditions,  in  the  manners  and  customs,  in 
the  civilization  and  social  life  of  the  people  until 
they  seem  to  be  inseparable  from  them.  But  this  is 
the  very  work  which  must  be  done  in  the  course  of 
the  coming  century.  Before  its  close  Mohammedan- 
ism will  be  utterly  paralyzed,  Brahmanism  largely  dis- 
integrated, and  Buddhism  will  be  melting  away  before 
the  warmth  and  sunshine  of  Christian  truth.  Truly 
the  missionaries  of  the  new  era,  the  young  men  now 
in  our  schools  and  soon  to  be  abroad  on  mighty  bat- 


15S  Missionary  Addresses. 

tie-fields,  need  to  be  moral  giants,  men  of  a  spiritual 
stature  far  surpassing  that  of  any  past  era. 

3.  The  new  era  will  be  marked  by  vastly  augmented 
resources  for  the  prosecution  of  this  work.  The 
Christian  churches  were  all  comparatively  poor  when 
this  enterprise  was  first  undertaken,  and  resources  of 
all  kinds,  whether  of  money  or  workers  or  the  appli- 
ances needed,  seemed  absurdly  out  of  proportion  to 
the  work  to  be  accomplished ;  but  all  this  has  been 
wonderfully  changed,  and  the  people  stand  upon  the 
threshold  of  a  new  century  with  resources  behind 
them  which  cannot  but  help  greatly  to  hasten  the 
glorious  consummation  for  which  they  labor  and 
pray. 

In  the  first  place  they  have  money.  They  are  not 
poor.  The  Christians  of  the  United  States  could 
provide  a  revenue  of  $25,000,000  a  year  for  the  prose- 
cution of  this  holy  war  and  not  be  conscious  of  any 
sacrifice.  A  tax  of  two  per  cent,  laid  upon  ordinary 
Christians  in  this  country  is  paid  without  a  murmur. 
A  war  tax  imposed  by  the  King  of  kings  of  one  third 
of  one  per  cent,  would  give  the  $25,000,000,  and 
leave  a  large  surplus  over.  The  time  is  near,  must 
be  near,  when  Christians  will  begin  to  see  that  they 
must  give  more  consistently  for  this  cause  or  else  be 
guilty  before  God,  and  from  their  overflowing  treasu- 
ries they  will  bring  forth  what  the  great  work  de- 
mands. The  world  cannot  be  converted  by  a  parsi- 
monious Church.  God  will  not  honor  himself  by 
committing  such  a  work  to  such  a  people,  and  we  may 
assume  it  as  certain  that  if  those  now  intrusted  with 
the  work  do  not  do  their  duty  God  will  thrust  them 
aside  and  raise  up  others  to  do  the  work  for  which 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  159 

they  prove  themselves  unworthy.  Money  is  needed, 
and  will  be  needed,  in  this  work,  and  needed  in  vastly 
increased  quantities.  Schools  and  churches,  orphan- 
ages and  asylums,  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  presses 
and  distributing  agencies,  must  be  provided,  and  pro- 
vided upon  a  scale  sucli  as  we  have  not  dreamed  of 
hitherto.  God  will  call  upon  his  people  for  many 
millions,  and  the  signs  of  the  times  are  so  manifest 
that  a  blind  man  cannot  help  seeing  that  the  churches 
will  be  abundantly  able  to  respond  to  the  full  demand 
made  upon  them. 

But  men  will  be  needed  as  well  as  money,  and  in  the 
new  era  it  is  evident  that  men  will  be  found  accord- 
ing to  the  necessities  of  the  hour.  In  1859,  a  few 
days  after  my  first  landing  in  India,  I  went  with  the 
four  missionary  brethren  and  their  wives  who  made  up 
our  party  to  call  on  Dr.  Duff.  The  old  veteran  was 
wonderfully  elated  as  he  saw  the  party  of  nine  stand- 
ing before  him.  "  They  used  to  come  by  twos  and 
threes,"  he  said,  "  but  you  bring  them  by  platoons." 
That  was  not  very  long  ago,  but  in  our  day  a  party  of 
nine  missionaries  landing  at  Calcutta  will  attract  no 
attention  whatever.  As  many  as  forty  have  been 
known  to  arrive  by  a  single  steamer.  And  yet  this 
is  as  nothing  compared  with  what  is  soon  to  be.  As 
I  said  before,  all  over  the  world  there  is  a  new  and 
extraordinary  desire  found  among  young  Christians 
to  enlist  for  service  in  the  mission  field.  This  is  a 
sign  of  the  times.  The  Church  has  the  men.  They 
can  be  given  for  the  work  ;  and  as  with  money  so  witli 
men,  God's  demands  must  be  met,  and  met  in  full. 

Just  here  another  powerful  contingent  appears 
upon  the  scene,  to  be   added  to  the  resources   with 


100  Missionary  Addresses. 

which  we  enter  upon  the  new  era.  For  two  full 
generations  the  idea  never  dawned  upon  the  minds 
of  the  missionary  leaders  of  the  Church  that  a  special 
sphere  of  labor  might  be  found  in  the  foreign  held 
for  Christian  women.  The  work,  it  was  assumed,  was 
such  as  women  could  not  successfully  perform.  Here 
and  there  a  lady  teacher  found  her  way  to  the  held, 
and  in  a  general  way  the  wives  of  missionaries  were 
expected  to  render  assistance  in  the  work  ;  but  no  one 
ever  thought  of  enlisting  Christian  women  in  large 
numbers  for  this  kind  of  work,  and  no  one  dreamed 
that  a  time  would  ever  come  when  it  would  be  found 
possible  to  employ  such  workers  in  the  far-off  waste 
places  of  the  earth.  But  God  has  his  own  plans,  and 
can  execute  them  according  to  his  sovereign  will. 
About  thirty  years  ago  the  Spirit  began  to  stir  up 
holy  women  in  Europe  and  America  to  go  forth  as 
missionaries  to  distant  lands,  and  as  they  obeyed,  and 
one  after  another  took  up  the  line  of  march,  organi- 
zations to  direct  and  support  them  sprang  into  exist- 
ence, and  almost  before  the  Christian  world  per- 
ceived what  was  going  on  a  new  and  powerful  con- 
tingent of  magnificent  workers  had  joined  the  grand 
army  already  in  the  field.  This  new  movement  is  so 
recent  that  it  seems  as  if  it  were  but  of  yesterday,  and 
yet  already  it  has  over  nine  hundred  workers  in  the 
field,  and  the  number  is  increasing  steadily  and  rap- 
idly. These  ladies  are  acquitting  themselves  splen- 
didly, and  are  taking  up  all  departments  of  mission- 
ary work.  They  have  greatly  strengthened  the  work- 
ing forces  abroad,  and  in  numerous  instances  have 
done  much  to  extend  the  work. 

This  sudden  development  of  woman's  work  in  the 


The  jSew  Missionary  Era.  161 

foreign  mission  field  is  so  extraordinary  that  its  im- 
portance is  not  at  all  appreciated  as  yet.  In  many 
places  it  lias  practically  doubled  the  working  force  in 
the  field.  In  the  great  city  of  Calcutta,  where  may 
be  found  the  strongest  body  of  workers  in  any  one 
place  in  the  heathen  world,  the  majority  of  the  regu- 
lar workers  are  ladies,  and  this  bids  fair  to  become  the 
proportion  in  other  great  cities,  if  not  in  the  country 
districts  also,  throughout  India.  Indeed,  I  do  not 
esitate  to  say  that  for  practical  missionary  work  theh 
various  woman's  societies  of  Europe  and  America 
are  better  equipped,  and  give  more  promise  of  suc- 
cessful labor  abroad,  than  all  the  missionary  societies 
of  the  world  did  less  than  half  a  century  ago.  In 
other  words,  it  looks  as  if  we  are  about  to  enter  upon 
the  missionary  era  with  our  resources  in  workers 
doubled  almost  at  a  stroke. 

And  there  is  still  another  contingent  appearing  in 
view  which  bids  fair  to  double  this  working  force 
again.  When  the  late  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  was  in 
power,  and  the  nations  of  Europe  were  in  a  state  of 
feverish  excitement  over  the  Eastern  Question  and  the 
probability  of  a  general  war,  a  startling  sensation  was 
produced  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  a  body  of  Indian 
sepoys  on  the  island  of  Cyprus.  They  were  few  in 
number,  and  the  exact  military  duty  which  they  were 
to  perform  was  not  at  all  apparent,  but  their  some- 
what dramatic  appearance  upon  the  great  European 
war  sta^e  was  quickly  interpreted.  It  was  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  method  of  reminding  Europe  that  En- 
gland had  an  immense  military  reserve  force  in  the  per- 
sons of  her  Indian  army  of  several  hundred  thousan 
men.     Europe  had  known  of  this  force  before,  but 


a 


1G2  Missionary  Addresses. 

never  realized  what  it  meant  till  those  sepoys  came 
through  the  Suez  Canal  and  landed  in  Cyprus.  In 
like  manner,  as  we  sit  down  to  number  our  forces  at 
the  beginning  of  this  new  missionary  era  it  is  but 
fitting  that  we  include  the  workers  raised  up  from 
the  converts  in  our  mission  fields.  How  many  are 
there?  Over  thirty  thousand!  Nearly  ten  times 
as  many  as  all  the  missionaries  sent  out  from  Chris- 
tian lands  combined  !  And  this  proportion  is  destined 
to  increase  steadily.  The  thirty  thousand  will  be 
one  hundred  thousand  long  before  the  close  of  the 
first  half  of  the  coming  century.  Compare  this  with 
one  hundred  years  ago,  and  the  difference  is  simply 
amazing.  William  Carey  had  to  wait  years  before  he 
had  one  convert;  his  successors  to-day  find  them- 
selves surrounded  and  supported  by  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  Christian  brethren,  ready  to  assist  them 
in  their  work,  or  even  to  go  before  them  and  pioneer 
their  difficult  way. 

III.  This  new  era  demands  a  reconstruction  of 
plans  and  methods.  —  From  what  has  been  said 
any  thoughtful  person  can  readily  see  that  we  can 
no  longer  work  upon  the  narrow  scale  which  thus 
far  has  been  adopted.  The  practical  meaning  of 
the  new  departure  is  that  the  Church  is  now,  for 
the  first  time,  about  to  enter  in  sublime  earnest 
upon  her  great  mission  of  converting  all  nations; 
of  saving  the  world.  To  do  this,  or  even  to  attempt 
so  gigantic  a  task,  will  require  a  general  change 
of  policy  at  home  and  abroad.  The  conflict  before 
us  will  differ  from  that  of  the  past  as  the  great 
war  for  the  union  differed  from  the  war  of  inde- 
pendence.    The  very  first  of   Grant's  great  battles 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  103 

involved  a  greater  expenditure  of  powder,  ball,  and 
blood,  than  all  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  combined. 
In  the  era  before  us  great  conflicts  must  be  waged 
compared  with  which  all  the  struggles  of  the  past 
will  seem  like  so  many  skirmishes.  The  devil  will  not 
let  go  his  hold  upon  the  great  seats  of  his  earthly  power 
without  a  desperate  contest  The  missionaries  of  the 
new  era  will  have  no  child's  play  to  engage  in  ;  they 
will  march  to  no  dress  parade.  Earnest,  desperately 
earnest,  work  is  before  them.  In  all  the  history  of 
the  world,  stronger  and  braver  men  have  never  been 
required  for  any  task  than  will  be  needed  in  the  early 
future  for  the  supreme  struggle  between  the  sons  of 
light  and  the  hosts  of  darkness.  Let  us  then,  with 
this  great  struggle  and  with  our  sublime  opportuni- 
ties in  view,  see  what  is  needed  in  the  way  of  new 
plans  and  new  policies. 

1.  It  should  be  assumed  at  once,  and  for  all  time 
to  come,  that  our  missionary  forces  must  be  vastly 
increased.  We  have  resources  of  men  and  women, 
and  we  must  draw  upon  these  freely.  It  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  men  enough  will  be  sent  abroad  to  fur- 
nish a  pastor  for  every  village,  but  we  have  a  right  to 
expect  and  demand  that  enough  men  will  be  sent  to 
plant  Christianity  in  every  center,  in  the  midst  of 
every  community.  One  man  cannot  do  all  this  work 
of  planting  in  a  given  place.  The  teacher  and  other 
laborers  follow,  or  in  some  cases  precede,  the  preacher, 
and  the  conversion  of  large  numbers  of  heathen  often 
increases  the  demand  for  men  rather  than  diminishes 
it.  Conceding  as  I  have  already  intimated,  that  in  the 
new  era  men  will  attempt  more  and  accomplish  more 
than  in  the  past,  the  fact  remains  none  the  less  patent 


164  Missionary  Addresses. 

that  God  would  have  his  Church  use  the  resources  of 
men  and  women  with  which  he  has  so  plenteously 
blessed  her.  Where  we  have  been  heretofore  send- 
ing out  one  worker  we  must  now  send  ten.  A  waste 
of  precious  labor  is  a  waste  of  one  of  God's  most 
precious  treasures. 

In  passing  through  the  country  I  hear  the  whistle  of 
the  engine  and  notice  that  the  train  is  slowing  up  at 
a  way  station.  I  look  out  and  see  a  pretty  little  town, 
and  the  conductor  passing  to  the  door  calls  out  Blank- 
ville.  I  take  out  my  railway  guide,  and  find  that 
Blankville  contains  1,430  inhabitants.  I  notice  three 
church  spires,  which  indicate  that  at  least  three  de- 
nominations of  Christians  are  planted  there.  The 
train  moves  on,  and  I  begin  to  reflect  that  there  are 
three  pastors  in  that  little  town,  and  that  it  is  not 
probable  that  any  one  of  the  three  preaches  to  a 
moderately  full  house.  It  is  more  probable  that  they 
feel  a  little  cramped  for  working  room,  that  they 
sometimes  jostle  one  another  uncomfortably,  and  that 
they  are  in  a  large  measure  wasting  their  lives  for 
want  of  room  in  which  to  expand  the  full  measure  of 
their  energies.  Then  I  say  to  myself,  If  those  three 
dear  men  wTould  only  pull  up  stakes  and  come  with 
me  to  India  I  could  find  for  each  one  of  them  a  wide 
enough  field.  Instead  of  being  one  of  three  to 
preach  to  1,430  souls,  I  could  give  each  one  of  them 
his  choice  of  1,430  towns  in  not  one  of  which  the 
gospel  of  Christ  has  ever  been  preached ! 

This  startling  inequality  in  the  division  of  Chris- 
tian labor  must  be  corrected.  The  mission  field  must 
have  ten  men  at  least  for  every  one  now  abroad,  and 
must  have  them  at  once.     If  we  are  really  in  earnest, 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  1G5 

if  we  really  intend  and  expect  to  finish  the  task  set 
before  us,  we  must  at  once  re-enforce  the  men  in  the 
field  upon  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  work  to  be 
done.  If  we  refuse,  if  we  hoard  these  resources  of 
men  and  women,  God's  law  will  work  as  in  every 
parallel  case.  Hoarding  will  impoverish.  Our  men 
at  home  will  dwindle  in  numbers,  and  grow  feeble  in 
strength. 

It  is  well  to  say,  however,  that  a  demand  for  an 
immediate  increase  of  workers  does  not  mean — -no,  not 
for  a  moment — that  mere  numbers  will  suffice.  It 
does  not  mean  that  untrained  soldiers  should  be  sent 
to  the  front,  that  men  and  women  and  children 
should  be  hurried  off  without  much  regard  to  their 
ability  to  succeed  in  the  work  which  they  are  sent  to 
do.  So  far  from  it,  the  exigencies  of  the  new  era 
demand  that  the  training  of  workers  be  begun  on  a 
broad  scale,  and  that  only  trained  and  tried  workers 
be  permanently  enlisted.  The  English  government 
does  not  send  a  soldier  to  India  until  he  has  learned 
his  drill,  does  not  send  an  officer  to  command  until 
he  has  passed  his  examination,  and  does  not  send  a 
civilian  to  administer  in  the  provinces  until  he  has 
been  put  through  a  succession  of  rigorous  tests  which 
reduce  the  chances  of  failure  to  a  minimum.  In  the 
greater  and  more  important  service  of  the  militant 
Church  a  similar  system  should  be  pursued.  It 
would  be  wise  conomy  if  our  own  Church  would  spend 
$50,000  a  year  in  training  and  testing  its  candidates 
for  missionary  service. 

2.  Our  plans  must  be  enlarged.  Only  a  few  years 
ago  our  own  Church  thought  it  a  great  thing  to  attempt 
the  evangelization  of  seventeen  millions  in  India,  but 


166  Missionary  x\ddresses. 

God  by  his  providence  has  enlarged  that  task,  until 
now  a  vast  empire  waits  to  receive  our  workers.  A 
few  weeks  hence  the  General  Conference  will  be 
asked  to  decide  the  question  of  planting  a  powerful 
mission  in  Malaysia,  a  mission  which  will  have  a  field 
embracing  fifty  millions  of  people  within  its  bounds. 
Thus  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  new  era  we  are  called 
upon  to  decide  a  most  momentous  question  of  policy. 
Shall  we  contract  our  lines  or  extend  them?  Shall 
we  sit  down  in  remote  little  fields,  or  shall  we  march 
across  continents?  Shall  we  work  on  as  if  we  ex- 
pected the  completion  of  our  task  2,000  years  hence, 
or  shall  we  plan  for  early,  and  decisive,  and  complete 
victory  ?  For  one,  I  cannot  but  hear  the  voice  of 
God  bidding  us  plan  upon  the  largest  possible  scale. 
We  should  accept  the  whole  wide  world  as  our  field  ; 
we  should  be  more  than  ready  to  bear  a  part  in  the 
conquest  of  every  nation  under  the  sun.  We  should 
expect  before  the  close  of  the  present  generation  to 
see  our  own  Church  sustaining  not  less  than  one 
thousand  men,  and  perhaps  twice  as  many  women, 
in  the  heathen  world  alone,  and  our  plans  should  be 
made  to  correspond  with  such  an  expectation. 

Do  I  dream  ?  Is  this  a  wild  expectation,  founded 
upon  fancy  or  hasty  assumption  only  ?  I  am  not  an 
old  man  yet,  and  yet- 1  can  remember  well  when  our 
Church  first  entered  upon  her  work  among  the 
heathen.  Even  as  late  as  when  I  myself  became  a 
missionary  we  had  less  than  ten  men  in  all  the  vast 
heathen  world.  I  do  not  include  Liberia,  for  that 
was  a  mission  to  Christian  colonists.  What  have  we 
done  since?  We  have  increased  our  missionaries 
slowly  enough,  and  yet  we  have  now  nearly  one  hun- 


The  New  Missionary  Era.  167 

dred  men  in  Asia  alone,  and  a  still  larger  force  of 
women.  Even  if  we  did  no  more  in  the  future,  made 
no  more  rapid  advance  than  we  have  been  doing,  we 
would  still  have  oue  thousand  missionaries  at  work  in 
Asia  before  the  close  of  the  present  generation. 

The  meaning  of  all  this  is  plain.  The  signs  of  the 
times,  the  lessons  of  the  past,  the  indications  of  the 
future,  the  call  of  providence,  and  the  voices  which 
come  borne  to  us  by  every  breeze,  and  from  every 
nation  under  heaven,  all  alike  bid  us  lay  our  plans 
upon  a  scale  worthy  of  men  who  expect  to  conquer  a 
world.  The  Christian  policy  of  such  an  age  as  ours, 
to  be  Christian,  must  be  imperial.  We  do  not  belong 
to  a  Roman  empire;  we  are  heirs  to  the  empire  of 
the  world.  Augustus  was  a  great  ruler  in  his  day, 
but  he  would  be  a  second  or  a  third  rate  potentate  in 
our  stirring  age.  God  gave  Paul  a  magnificent  field 
in  which  to  move  and  act,  but  he  gives  us  one  twelve 
times  as  populous,  twenty  times  as  large,  and  a  hun- 
dred times  more  fruitful  of  every  resource  which  can 
make  a  Christian  empire  great  and  good  and  glori- 
ous. This  is  no  age  in  which  to  sustain  little  feeble 
mission  stations  in  remote  corners  of  the  earth,  with- 
out plan,  without  method,  planted  without  expecta- 
tion of  large  success,  and  carried  on  without  hope  of 
early  or  even  ultimate  victory.  Again  I  say,  the 
policy  demanded  is  an  imperial  policy.  The  king- 
doms of  this  world  are  to  become  the  kingdoms  of 
our  Lord,  and  the  time  has  fully  come  for  his  servants 
to  go  forth,  and  in  his  royal  name  assert  his  royal 
claim  to  every  crown  and  every  throne. 

3.  These  enlarged  plans  must  include  what  might 
be  termed  internal  development  as  well  as  external 


168  Missionary  Addresses. 

expansion.  A  large  plan  does  not  necessarily  mean 
one  of  vast  circumference.  It  must  not  be  only 
broad  and  wide,  but  deep  and  high.  It  must  include 
the  highest  and  best  results,  as  well  as  those  capable 
of  the  largest  enumeration.  We  must  plan  for  the 
future  Christianity  of  a  nation  as  well  as  for  its  con- 
version. Hence  we  must  expand  our  definition  of 
the  word  education,  and  enlarge  the  capacity  of  our 
mission  presses. 

With  regard  to  this  latter-  agency,  I  am  bound  to 
say  that  nothing  in  all  the  wide  range  of  missionary 
operations  in  modern  times  has  so  surprised  me,  and 
nothing  to  this  day  seems  so  utterly  unaccountable, 
as  the  almost  universal,  deliberate,  and  persistent 
neglect  of  the  press  as  a  powerful  missionary  agency. 
Here  and  there  you  may  see  a  mission-press,  but 
nearly  always  conducted  on  a  narrow  basis, .badly 
equipped,  half-starved,  and  intended  only  for  the  im- 
mediate wants  of  a  limited  missionary  constituency. 
The  idea  of  making  it  a  powerful  aggressive  agency, 
of  using  if  as  the  world  uses  it  and  as  the  devil  uses 
it,  of  recognizing  its  power,  and  utilizing  its  power, 
never  seems  to  have  dawned  upon  the  good  but  un- 
wise children  of  liodit  who  have  been  intrusted  with 
the  administration  of  the  great  missionary  societies  of 
the  world.  In  the  new  era  this  error  must  be  cor- 
rected. The  press  must  be  worked  for  all  that  it  is 
worth,  and  it  is  worth  more  than  can  be  expressed  in 
words  and  figures. 

Education,  too,  must  be  put  on  a  broader  basis. 
We  shall  have  more  to  do  than  merely  teach  re- 
claimed savages  how  to  read  the  Bible.  We  are 
working  among  some  of  the   most  intellectual  races 


The  New  Missionary  Eea.  169 

on  the  globe.  We  are  raising  up  Christians  who  will 
need  to  have  as  carefully  educated  minds  as  can  be 
found  in  any  land.  We  must  have  in  all  the  rising 
Christian  empires  of  the  East  men  whose  mental 
equipment  will  fit  them  for  noble  service  in  any  de- 
partment of  intellectual  effort.  We  cannot  educate 
all  such  men,  generation  after  generation,  but  we  can 
sow  the  seeds  now  out  of  which  such  an  education 
will  grow.  In  other  words,  we  must  educate,  in  the 
highest  and  best  sense  of  the  word,  a  race  of  intellect- 
ual  pioneers,  a  class  of  men  who  will  take  up  this  task 
themselves  in  due  time,  and  carry  it  on  through  com- 
ing generations.  We  have  organized  a  thousand  ele- 
mentary schools  in  foreign  lands,  and  in  doing  so  we 
have  done  a  noble  work,  but  in  the  new  era  we  must 
build  the  college  as  well  as  the  school,  and  foster  the 
highest  education  as  well  as  the  lowest. 

4.  It  only  remains  to  say,  what  perhaps  might  go 
without  saying  at  all,  that  in  the  new  era  God's  peo- 
ple must  pour  out  treasure  as  they  have  never  done 
before.  We  have  seen  that  they  have  the  treasure, 
that  the  Church  is  not  wanting  in  financial  resources. 
It  must  be  a  settled  policy  in  entering  upon  this  era 
that  the  Church  ought  to  make  this  advance,  and  a 
settled  article  of  faith  that  she  will  make  it.  Twenty 
years  ago  I  stood  with  a  brother  missionary  upon  the 
grassy  summit  of  one  of  the  lower  Himalayan  peaks. 
We  were  near  the  separating  boundary  line  of  two 
mountain  provinces.  We  were  about  to  part,  and 
were  earnestly  discussing  some  plans  pertaining  to 
the  future  of  our  work.  I  looked  out  over  the  great 
mountain  ranges,  gazed  northward,  and  then  turning 
round  swept  in  within  my  radius  of  vision  a  country 


170  Missionary  Addresses. 

larger  than  a  New  England  State,  and  as  I  thought 
of  three  hundred  thousand  precious  souls  living  on 
those  mountain  slopes  I  said,  "  For  such  a  field  our 
Church  will  not  refuse  to  give  us  at  least  three  men. 
Plan  accordingly.  Assume  that  the  work  will  be 
carried  on  upon  such  a  scale.  Our  Church  will  not 
do  less." 

That  was  twenty  years  ago,  and  in  the  years  which 
have  since  elapsed  I  have  often  had  in  vision  to  climb 
higher  mountains  than  any  found  in  the  Himalayan 
range,  and  gaze  out  over  provinces,  and  nations,  and 
empires,  and  ask  myself  on  what  basis  God  would 
have  me  lay  my  plans.  I  must  confess  that  too 
often,  and  far  too  long,  I  shrank  back  at  such  times 
and  thought  of  the  beggarly  revenue  with  which  we 
were  expected  to  fight  campaigns  and  found  em- 
pires. If  God  will  forgive  me  I  shall  shrink  back 
no  more.     We  sometimes  sing : 

"My  Father  is  rich  in  houses  and  lands." 

Our  Father's  Church  is  rich  also,  and  we  must  enter 
the  new  missionary  era  with  a  settled  faith  that  she 
will  speedily  learn  to  dispense  her  bounty  as  becomes 
a  royal  princess  of  heaven's  realm.  Her  bounty  in 
the  past  has  been  unworthy  of  a  princess,  a  positive 
reproach  to  the  name  of  Him  who  has  commissioned 
his  people  to  save  the  nations.  May  that  reproach 
soon  be  rolled  away,  completely  and  forever. 


The  World's  Pentecost.  171 


THE  WORLD'S  PENTECOST. 

THE  Christian  world  lias  long  been  accustomed  to 
take  a  very  limited  view  of  the  great  event  re- 
corded in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Acts. 
Pentecost  is  usually  regarded  as  a  primitive  prayer- 
meeting  of  an  extraordinary  character — a  meeting 
which  was  attended  by  some  very  unusual  manifesta- 
tions, and  followed  by  some  remarkable  results — but, 
after  all,  as  but  a  prayer-meeting,  and  as  not  essen- 
tial^ more  important  than  any  one  of  a  million  of 
similar  meetings  which  have  been  held  since.  A 
more  inadequate  view  could  hardly  be  taken  of  any 
past  event.  So  far  from  being  a  mere  early  prayer- 
meeting,  held  in  Jerusalem  under  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances,, Pentecost  stands  out  in  God's  clear  light 
as  one  of  the  great  headlands  of  history.  It  was  the 
real  starting  point  of  Christianity.  It  was  an  exhibi- 
tion both  of  the  potency  and  the  promise  with  which 
God  endowed  the  new  faith  as  it  entered  upon  the 
active  stage  of  its  career  among  men.  It  was  the 
opening  chapter  of  a  new  dispensation,  the  full  sun- 
rise of  the  morning  whose  dawn  had  been  mellowing 
earth's  eastern  sky  for  seven  thrilling  weeks.  It  was 
the  initiation  upon  a  permanent  basis  of  Christ's 
great  work  on  earth,  an  illustration  of  its  feasibility, 
and  a  pledge  of  its  final  consummation.  Pentecost  is 
thus  made  to  stand  in  a  very  near  and  very  practical 
relation  to  the  great  missionary  enterprise,  and  it  will 
12 


172  Missionary  Addresses. 

greatly  assist  us  in  prosecuting  this  grand  work  if  we 
carefully  study  this  event,  especially  in  its  practical 
bearings,  and  in  its  relation  to  the  greatest  of  all 
human  undertakings  in  ancient  or  modern  times. 

I.  What  was  Pentecost  f 

"What  was  the  full  meaning  of  the  manifestation 
made  on  that  morning,  and  what  lessons  were  taught 
by  the  events  which  followed  ? 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  the  inauguration  of  a 
new  dispensation.  The  present  is  sometimes,  but  not 
very  correctly,  called  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  is  made  to  date  from  the  morning  on  which 
the  Spirit  in  full  measure  was  given.  It  would  be 
more  correct  to  say  that  this  is  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion, and  that  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  completed  its  in- 
auguration. The  work  was  not  done  when  Jesus  cried 
on  the  cross,  "  It  is  finished  !  "  One  stage  had  been 
completed,  but  only  one.  Nor  was  it  done  when  the 
risen  Saviour  came  forth  from  the  tomb  and  proclaimed 
his  victory  over  death  and  the  grave.  The  great  work 
was  hastening  to  its  glorious  consummation,  but  the 
end  was  not  yet.  Olivet  followed  with  its  glory,  but 
the  ascension  was  not  the  final  act.  From  his  throne 
in  heaven  Jesus  was  to  issue  the  word  of  power  which 
was  to  complete  the  inauguration  of  his  dispensation 
among  men,  and  when  the  Spirit  came,  when  the  dis- 
ciples in  the  fullest  sense  were  made  temples  of  the 
living  God,  when  Jesus  personally  became  manifested 
to  each  and  every  follower,  in  each  and  every  place, 
at  all  times,  and  for  all  ages,  when  the  ministry  of 
Galilee  was  expanded  into  the  ministry  of  the  wdiole 
earth,  and  the  highest  elements  of  spiritual  power 
were  made  a  permanent  gift  to  all  believers,  then,  and 


The  World's  Pentecost.  173 

only  then,  was  the  dispensation  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
dispensation  of  the  New  Covenant,  fully  established 
among  men.  This  is  indeed  the  dispensation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  but  it  is  also  more  than  this.  It  is,  in 
the  broadest  sense,  the  New  Dispensation — the  dis- 
pensation of  grace  and  truth  spoken  of  by  the  beloved 
disciple,  the  dispensation  in  which  the  world's  Messiah 
supersedes  the  lawgiver  of  the  Jewish  nation. 

2.  Pentecost  was  the  initiation  of  a  new  work. 
Jesus  had  showed  his  disciples  how  to  preach,  had 
given  them  a  formal  initiation  into  that  work,  but  the 
preacher's  power  had  not  yet  been  displayed,  and  the 
wrork  had  not  yet  been  projected  upon  the  world's 
broad  stage.  That  was  done  in  a  most  remarkable 
way  upon  the  eventful  morning  of  Pentecost.  The 
gift  of  tongues  and,  more  especially,  the  appearance 
of  tongues  of  living  flame  upon  each  disciple  were 
intended  to  teach  two  lessons :  first,  the  momentous 
fact  that  in  the  new  dispensation  the  spoken  word  was 
to  be  the  chosen  medium  of  truth  and  blessing,  the 
human  tongue  being  made  to  speak  for  God  ;  and, 
second,  the  power  to  speak  in  the  tongue  of  every 
nation  represented  in  the  city  was  a  promise  of  the 
coming  day  when  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  should 
be  preached  in  every  language  of  earth.  The  great 
work  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  nations  was 
thus  formally  initiated  with  extraordinary  results,  and 
with  a  sublime  token  of  God's  immediate  presence 
and  power.  Nor  was  it  the  initiation  of  the  work  of 
preaching  alone.  It  was  the  beginning  of  active 
Christian  work  in  all  its  phases — the  first  master- 
stroke in  the  great  struggle  which  was  to  go  on  till 
the  work  of  earth's  redemption  should  be  completed. 


174  Missionary  Addresses. 

The  tonsrue  of  flame   was  not  alone  for  the  formal 

preacher,  but  it  sat  upon  every  disciple.     In  all  the 

world,    in    every    age    and  clime,   all    the   followers 

of    the   common    Master   were    to   sliare   his   work, 

and  in  and  through  them  he  was  to  pull  down  and 

build  up,  to   turn    and  overturn,   to  kill  and  make 

alive,  until  judgment  should  be  sent  forth  to  its  final 

victory. 

3.  Pentecost  was  the  bestowal  of  new  and  enlarged 

spiritual  gifts  and  graces.  The  tone  of  piety  had 
hitherto  been  low.  The  standard  of  holy  living  had 
been  l#w.  The  age  of  dim  shadows  had  just  closed, 
and  the  substance,  the  reality,  the  grace  and  truth  of 
the  Gospel,  were  to  shine  forth  in  the  clear  light  of 
the  new  day.  The  fruits  of  the  Spirit  were  to  ripen  in 
every  believer's  heart,  and  enrich  and  beautify  every 
believer's  life.  The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  was 
to  reappear  in  the  life  of  every  disciple.  All  this  was 
made  real  when  the  Spirit  came  upon  the  band  of 
praying  disciples  in  that  little  upper  room.  A  new 
spiritual  life  was  bestowed,  and  its  power  and  fruits 
were  henceforth  to  be  exhibited  before  men. 

And  with  the  grace  of  the  Spirit  came  also  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit.  The  disciples  were  equipped  for  the 
work  which  they  were  to  do.  Priceless  gifts  were  put 
in  their  possession,  each  of  which  was  to  play  a  part  in 
the  performance  of  the  great  work  committed  into 
their  hands.  The  power  to  speak  with  tongues  was 
for  the  moment  the  most  prominent  of  these,  but  it 
was  by  no  means  the  most  valuable.  The  highest 
gift  was  that  of  prophecy,  or  the  power  to  speak  by 
the  special  aid  of  the  Spirit.  The  gift  of  miracles,  the 
gift  of  healing,  the  gift  of  tongues,  all  these  took 


The  World's  Pentecost.  175 

secondary  places.  The  gift  of  prophecy,  or  preach- 
ing, the  gift  of  special  faith,  of  spiritual  discernment, 
of  teaching,  of  prayer,  of  exhortation,  of  the  evangel- 
ist and  the  pastor — all  these  were  endowments  of  the 
Spirit  which  litted  each  happy  recipient  for  the  full 
measure  of  duty  required  in  the  particular  sphere  as- 
signed to  him.  Nothing  was  lacking.  Not  only  did 
each  receive  what  he  personally  needed,  but  the  om- 
niscient Spirit  so  made  the  distribution  that  the  body 
of  Christians  present  were  fully  equipped  for  the 
magnificent  career  upon  which  they  were  about  to 
enter. 

4.  Pentecost  was  an  exhibition  of  the  full  measure 
of  spiritual  power.  The  special  promise  of  Jesus  in 
reference  to  this  event  connected  it  almost  wholly 
with  this  special  feature.  Other  gifts  were  distrib- 
uted, but  this  was  the  gift  of  all.  Other  gifts  had 
their  value,  but  this  made  them  all  effective.  For  all 
ages  to  come,  divine  power  was  to  accompany  Chris- 
tian workers,  and  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  great  com- 
mission to  evangelize  the  race  this  gift  of  power  was 
to  be  especially  prominent.  Peter,  standing  up  like  a 
new  Elijah,  with  face  radiant  with  joy,  and  heart  glow- 
ing with  fervid  love,  hewing  and  cleaving  the  multi- 
tude  before  him  with  the  sword  of  truth,  was  the  first 
of  a  long  line  of  Christian  prophets  who  were  to 
preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ  with  power  sent  down 
from  heaven.  And  the  little  assembly  of  believers, 
each  witnessing  to  the  inquiring  multitude,  was  the 
forerunner  of  millions  upon  millions  of  other  assem- 
blies upon  which,  in  after  ages,  the  power  of  the  Spirit 
should  descend.  This  power  was  a  permanent  gift, 
and  on  that  eventful  morning  God  gave  a  formal  ex- 


176  Missionary  Addresses. 

liibition  of  it  which  should  arrest  and  hold  the  atten- 
tion of  his  Church  in  all  the  generations  which  were 
to  follow. 

5.  Pentecost  was  the  creation,  or,  perhaps  more 
properly,  the  manifestation,  of  the  ideal  Christian 
Church.  The  little  Church  of  Pentecost  had  a  brief 
but  brilliant  career.  It  should  never  be  confounded 
with  the  later  Church,  of  which  James  was  bishop. 
It  wTas  utterly  broken  up  at  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen, 
and  never  reorganized  on  its  primitive  basis.  It 
was  truly  a  glorious  Church.  During  its  brief  day 
of  four,  or  possibly  seven,  years,  God  dwelt  among 
and  in  his  people.  Christian  unity,  fraternal  love, 
and  the  highest  type  of  Christian  living  were  ex- 
hibited on  a  scale  such  as  the  world  has  never  wit- 
nessed since.  Christian  communism  was  put  into 
practical  operation  on  a  basis  which  was  the  exact 
opposite  of  the  pernicious  doctrine  which  bears  that 
name  in  our  day,  the  inspiration  of  the  one  being 
self-denying  love  and  of  the  other  grasping  selfish- 
ness. No  wonder  that  great  power  rested  upon  the 
little  Church,  and  that  the  first  Christians  enjoyed  the 
praise  of  all  people. 

The  Church  of  Pentecost  has  disappeared  ;  but,  for 
one,  I  do  not,  and  cannot,  believe  that  it  has  vanished 
forever.  We  read  of  it  as  of  an  old  event,  and  look 
back  upon  it  as  if  to  take  a  last  view  of  a  beautiful 
picture  fading  in  the  receding  distance.  It  is  not  a 
last  view.  I  verily  believe  that  God  has  lifted  that 
glorious  picture  of  a  spotless  Church,  and  placed  it 
in  the  forefront  of  his  advancing  hosts,  and  hence- 
forth it  becomes  a  practical  ideal  to  which  we  are 
to   approach,   instead   of   a    vision    of    beauty  from 


The  World's  Pentecost.  177 

which  we  are  forever  to  recede.  The  details  may 
differ,  but  in  outline,  at  least,  that  glorious  Church 
is  to  reappear  again  on  earth.  Christians  are  to  be- 
come one  great  brotherhood  in  very  deed,  and  the 
sweetness,  and  light,  and  power  of  the  Christian 
life  are  to  exhale  every-where,  like  the  sweetness  of 
the  myriad  flowers  which  deck  the  bosom  of  our  fair 
earth. 

II.  The  permanent  and  the  transient  in  Pente- 
cost. 

At  this  point  it  will  be  necessary  to  examine  care- 
fully how  far  the  element  of  permanency  enters  into 
the  various  manifestations  which  accompanied  the 
first  descent  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  Christian  Church. 
What  was  permanent  and  what  transient  among  the 
gifts  bestowed  and  the  wonders  displayed  ? 

1.  One  cause  of  the  light  esteem  in  which  Pente- 
cost is  held  by  so  many  is  the  very  common  impres- 
sion that  it  was  a  special  event,  and  that  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  peculiar  manifestations  connected  with  it  were 
transitory.  It  is  assumed  that  as  tongues  of  flame  no 
longer  appear,  and  as  disciples  are  no  longer  empow- 
ered to  speak  in  unknown  tongues,  so  all  the  other  gifts, 
and  all  the  special  graces,  bestowed  on  that  occasion 
were  for  that  time  only,  and  have  no  special  signifi- 
cance to  us.  This  is  a  very  great  and  very  sad  mis- 
take. If  there  is  any  one  truth  taught  in  the  New 
Testament  which  we  need  to  emphasize  it  is  the 
Saviour's  assurance  that  when  the  Paraclete  should 
come  it  would  be  to  abide  forever.  On  the  morning 
of  Pentecost  the  bright  river  of  life,  which  John  saw 
proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb, 
burst  forth  in    its  earthward  flow,  and    it  has  been 


178  Missionary  Addresses. 

flowing  in  fullest  measure  ever  since.  The  Holy 
Spirit  in  hi.s  fullness  is  a  permanent  gift. 

But  while  the  Paraclete  has  come  among  us  to 
abide,  all  the  manifestations  of  the  first  morning  of 
blessing  have  not  been  permanent.  Some  of  those 
first  gifts  were  permanent  and  some  transient.  The 
graces  were  all  permanent,  as  abiding  and  unchang- 
ing as  their  unchanging  Source.  But  among  the 
gifts  we  must  distinguish  between  those  given  as  a 
seal  upon  a  great  epochal  event,  and  an  attestation  of 
God's  presence  in  an  age  when  revelation  was  still 
incomplete,  and  those  other  gifts  which  belong  to  the 
Christian  all  through  the  dispensation,  and  which  are 
essential  to  the  prosecution  of  the  work  which  God 
lias  given  his  people  to  do.  Making  this  distinction, 
we  at  once  cease  to  look  for  the  appearance  of  tongues 
of  flame,  or  to  listen  for  the  sound  of  a  mighty  rush- 
ing wind.  We  find  nonnecessity  for  these  tokens, 
and  we  cease  to  expect,  them.  And  as  we  cease  to 
look  for  these  signs  we  must  in  all  consistency  give 
up  all  thought  of  expecting  any  manifestations  which 
are  strictly  miraculous.  The  wonderful  will  remain, 
the  preternatural,  and  the  supernatural,  but  in  the 
strict  interpretation  of  the  word  we  need  not  expect 
the  miraculous  to  appear.  The  spiritually  miraculous 
will  remain,  the  divine  element  will  remain,  and  all 
purely  spiritual  gifts  will  remain. 

2.  The  discussion  of  this  question  of  the  perma- 
nent and  the  transient  in  Pentecost  really  turns  upon 
an  examination  of  facts.  As  a  matter  of  fact  certain 
features  of  the  first  Pentecost  have  disappeared,  and 
certain  other  features  abide.  It  will  not  do  to  say 
that  it  is  the  defective   faith  of  the  Church  which 


The  World's  Pentecost.  170 

causes  the  disappearance  of  these  features,  for  it  is  a 
striking  fact  that  it  is  the  most  precious  of  all  bless- 
ings given  which  still  abide.  Weak  faith  forfeits  the 
highest  blessings  first.  But  the  richest  blessings 
given  on  the  morning  of  Pentecost  are  still  the 
heritage  of  the  Church,  and  attest  the  fact  that  God 
still  has  a  faithful  and  believing  people. 

3.  The  disappearance  of  the  gift  of  tongues  has  occa- 
sioned no  little  disquiet  in  the  minds  of  many,  espe- 
cially those  who  have  supposed  that  this  gift  was  orig- 
inally bestowed  for  missionary  purposes.  We  often 
hear  it  said  that  modern  missionaries  do  not  enjoy  the 
immense  advantage  which  the  apostles  did  of  being 
able  to  speak  in  each  and  every  tongue  which  they 
encountered,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  Gospel  was  not 
ordinarily  preached  under  the  influence  of  this  pe- 
culiar afflatus.  Paul  tells  us  that  God  gave  this 
power  of  speaking  in  unknown  tongues  as  a  "  sign  " 
to  unbelievers,  and,  so  far  from  having  preachers  em- 
powered to  speak  directly  to  people  of  any  one  of  a 
dozen  nationalities,  Paul  gave  direction  to  have  an 
interpreter  provided  for  the  man  speaking  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  that  the  people  might  be  able  to  un- 
derstand him.  The  first  missionaries,  like  those  of 
the  present  day,  encountered  the  language  difficulty 
in  all  its  formidable  proportions,  and  if  the  ancient 
gift  of  tongues  were  to  return  again  to  God's  people 
it  would  not  lighten  the  labors  of  missionaries  go- 
ing to  foreign  fields  the  smallest  degree. 

4.  In  looking  for  permanent  features  of  this  great 
visitation  from  on  high,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  by 
the  appearance  of  other  pentecosts.  At  Samaria  God 
gave  Peter  and  John  a  token  which  might  have  led 


1S<J  Missionary  Addresses. 

them  to  think  of  a  wide  expansion  of  this  blessing, 
but  it  was  not  understood.  Then  at  Cesarea  Peter 
received  a  second  gracious  intimation  of  God's  pur- 
pose, but  neither  he  nor  his  brethren  gave  full  heed  to 
the  lesson.  Some  years  passed  away,  and  again  in  the 
great  city  of  Ephesus,  while  Paul  was  expounding  the 
promise  of  the  Spirit  to  a  dozen  disciples,  the  old 
scene  of  the  first  morning,  without,  however,  its  out- 
ward sign,  was  re-enacted,  and  this  time  a  man  stood 
forth  who  knew  how  to  follow  such  an  indication  as 
this  afforded.  That  great  missionary  held  the  disciples 
together,  taught  them  to  use  the  gifts  imparted  to  them, 
extended  the  work,  and  soon  produced  such  a  scene 
of  spiritual  activity  as  has  not  yet  been  witnessed  in 
the  growing  Christian  Church.  Two  years  of  such 
labor,  pushed  forward  under  the  powerful  stimulus  of 
that  little  pentecostal  beginning,  sufficed  to  rouse  the 
whole  city,  to  shake  its  idolatry  to  its  very  founda- 
tions, and  to  produce  a  profound  impression  upon 
all  the  region  round  about.  This  case  of  the  little 
pentecost  at  Ephesus,  with  its  immense  results,  in- 
troduces us  to  the  missionary  bearing  of  the  whole 
question.  In  a  mission  field,  under  the  labors  of  the 
greatest  missionary  of  the  age,  God  showed  what 
could  be  done,  and  what  in  any  age  might  be  done, 
by  a  repetition  upon  a  larger  or  smaller  scale  of  the 
great  scene  described  in  the  second  chapter  of  Acts. 
Just  here  we  must  pause  long  enough  to  explain 
that  these  minor  or  later  pentecosts  differed  from  the 
first  in  several  particulars.  They  were  repetitions  of 
certain  features  only  of  Pentecost.  They  marked 
the  beginning  of  no  dispensation,  they  brought  no 
new  gifts,  they  introduced  nothing  new  of  any  kind. 


Tue  World's  Pentecost.  1S1 

They  were  simply  a  continuation  of  what  had  begun, 
a  part  of  the  current  of  the  river  which  had  been 
flowing  steadily  all  through  the  intervening  years. 
The  original  gathering  in  the  upper  room  was  a 
prayer-meeting,  and  as  a  prayer-meeting  it  will  stand 
as  a  model  to  Christians  in  every  age.  The  outpour- 
ing of  the  Spirit  upon  those  first  disciples  may  be 
repeated  in  the  case  of  others  a  thousand  or  a  million 
times  as  the  centuries  go  by,  but  these  repeated 
scenes  of  blessing,  so  much  like  repetitions  of  the 
first  great  Pentecost,  detract  nothing  from  the  tran- 
scendent importance  of  that  event,  and  change  noth- 
ing in  the  character  which  has  been  assigned  to  it. 

III.  Let  us  next  consider  Pentecost  in  the  hearings 
upon  the  missionary  enterprise. 

The  story  of  the  extraordinary  revival  at  Ephesus, 
with  its  far-reaching  results,  starting  as  it  did  from  a 
repetition  upon  a  very  small  scale  of  the  scene  in  the 
upper  room  at  Jerusalem,  has  a  most  important  bear- 
ing upon  missionary  work  in  our  own  day,  and  ought 
to  stir  the  hearts  of  all  workers  to  their  profoundest 
depths.  What  happened  then  may  happen  again,  and 
indeed  has  happened  again  in  its  essential  features,  in 
modern  cities  as  large  and  as  important  as  Ephesus 
was  in  the  days  of  her  greatest' prosperity.  Let  us 
consider  for  a  moment  the  possibilities  which  this 
statement  opens  up  before  us. 

1.  Let  us  suppose  that  instead" of  one  Ephesus  and 
one  little  meeting  we  witness  a  thousand  such  all  at 
once,  or  in  rapid  succession,  in  a  thousand  of  the  most 
influential  cities  of  the  globe.  If  Paul's  little  meeting 
shook  the  great  city  of  Ephesus  and  all  the  adjacent 
provinces  with  the  power  of  a  moral  earthquake  in 


1S2  Missionary  Addresses. 

the  short  space  of  two  years,  would  not  a  thousand 
similar  movements  in  our  own  day  send  a  quiver 
round  the  globe,  and  shake  the  nations  to  their  very 
foundations  ?  Does  not  the  very  mention  of  such  a 
possibility  seem  to  put  missionary  enterprise  upon  a 
new  basis,  reduce  the  magnitude  of  the  task  before  us, 
and  increase  the  resources  of  the  Christian  Church  a 
thousand -fold  ?  - 

Now  this  supposed  possibility  is  the  practical 
reality  toward  which  God  is  leading  his  people.  In 
the  upper  chamber  and  at  Ephesus  alike,  the  prelimi- 
nary condition  was  the  collecting  together  in  one  as- 
sembly of  a  number  of  believers,  with  one  mind,  one 
heart,  and  one  faith.  They  were  a  prepared  people, 
prepared  as  earthen  vessels  to  receive  the  expected 
treasure,  prepared  as  obedient  servants  to  discharge 
the  new  and  amazing  obligations  which  were  to  be  laid 
upon  them.  In  our  day  God  is  preparing  and  scat- 
tering over  the  earth  many  believing  bands  of  like 
character.  I  have  said  that  a  thousand  such,  scattered 
over  the  earth,  if  filled  with  the  Spirit  in  pentecostal 
measure,  would  make  the  very  earth  tremble ;  would 
send  a  quiver  all  through  the  human  race.  But  God  is 
preparing  more,  many  more,  than  a  thousand  such 
bands  for  his  great  day  of  blessing.  At  this  very  hour 
there  are  probably  one  hundred  thousand  such  bands, 
or  at  least  bands  of  true  Christian  believers,  scattered 
over  the  world,  all  waiting  on.God,  all  believing  in  the 
Holy  Spirit,  all  prepared  when  the  signal  is  given  to 
startle  the  communities  in  which  they  live  by  signal 
displays  of  new  spiritual  power.  I  say  one  hundred 
thousand,  but  the  number  is  probably  greater.  If  we 
enumerated    all    evangelical    Churches   the    number 


The  World's  Pentecost.  1S3 

would  be  greater,  but  as  many  of  these  are  formal  and 
almost  lifeless,  without  expectation  of  blessing  and 
unprepared  for  service,  the}7  cannot  be  considered  in 
such  a  calculation.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
many,  very  many,  bands  of  true  and  earnest  believers 
not  formally  connected  with  any  Church,  that  is,  not 
as  bands,  although  the  members  may  be  as  individ- 
uals. Put  all  these  into  the  estimate  and  the  number 
would  probably  exceed  one  hundred  thousand.  And 
this  number  is  increasing  rapidly,  and  the  dispersion 
is  becoming  wider  every  year.  China  and  India  have 
become  dotted  all  over  with  such  little  companies,  and 
soon  the  progress  of  others  like  them  will  be  ascend- 
ing from  the  depths  of  Africa,  and  from  almost  every 
valley  and  mountain  slope  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

2.  Whatever  we  may  say  or  think  as  to  the  possi- 
bility of  a  great  pentecost  upon  all  these  bands,  the 
fact  that  God  has  prepared  them,  is  still  preparing 
them,  and  that  they  are  becoming  dispersed  all  over 
the  globe,  is  too  full  of  significance  to  be  overlooked. 
Nor  is  it  necessarj7  to  seek  for  special  proof  of  God's 
purpose.  In  every  case,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  lands, 
God's  purpose  in  associating  believers  together  is  that 
their  united  faith  may  be  used,  and  their  common 
blessings  shared,  and  the  divine  glory  revealed  in  and 
through  them.  If  there  were  no  race  to  be  saved 
each  believing  band  would  still  need  its  pentecost, 
and  hence  we  dare  not  doubt  that  God  intends  every 
little  and  every  great  flock  of  disciples  in  all  the  wide 
world  to  be  enriched  with  blessing,  and  crowned 
with  glory,  and  robed  with  power,  as  were  the  hand- 
ful of  disciples  at  Ephesus.  But  we  have  a  more 
sure  word  of  promise.     The  mouth  of  Jehovah  hath 


134-  Missionary  Addresses. 

spoken  it,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  to  be  poured  out 
upon  all  flesh,  and  we  cannot  doubt,  as  we  see  God 
preparing  the  way  before  us,  that  the  whole  wide 
world  is  being  set  in  order,  like  another  Jerusalem, 
for  such  a  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  as  shall  con- 
found all  nations  and  call  forth  the  stricken  cry  from 
millions  upon  millions,  "  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall 
we  do?" 

3.  Will  this  great  outpouring  upon  the  nations 
come  on  a  single  morning,  or  will  it  be  a  constant 
succession  of  similar  events  extending  over  a  cen- 
tury or  an  era  ?  Shall  we  reach  a  time,  perhaps  very 
soon,  when  by  the  electric  wire  all  believers  on  the 
globe  can  be  summoned  at  a  fixed  hour  to  the  mercy- 
seat,  so  that  the  expectant  faith  of  all  Christians  may 
be  united  at  a  given  moment  in  looking  up  to  God, 
and  are  we  to  expect  that  every-where,  in  the  same 
moment  of  time,  the  blessing  will  descend  on  all 
alike  ?  Or  shall  we  go  on  maintaining  our  faith, 
cherishing  our  expectancy,  and  hearing  every  morn- 
ing tidings  from  near  and  from  far  of  towns  and 
cities  and  nations  being  shaken  by  visitations  from 
on  high  ?  I  do  not  pretend  to  answer  such  questions 
as  these.  God  sometimes  reveals  his  purposes  to 
men,  but  so  far  as  times  and  seasons  and  methods  and 
details  are  concerned  we  are  left  in  ignorance,  and 
are  wise  if  we  do  not  try  too  anxiously  to  peer  behind 
the  veil  which  hides  the  future  from  our  sight. 

But  while  we  may  not  know  the  day  nor  the  hour 
of  such  an  event,  it  does  certainly  assist  our  faith 
and  kindle  our  zeal  to  contemplate  the  event  as  one, 
and  to  look  for  its  realization  as  if  all  Christians  in 
the  world  were  collected  in  one  assembly  and  waiting 


The  World's  Pentecost.  1<S5 

for  the  expected  blessing  to  descend,  as  of  old,  as 
suddenly  as  if  it  were  the  voice  of  the  living  God. 
The  week  of  prayer,  now  so  universally  observed,  was 
originally  suggested  with  this  idea  in  mind.  It  is 
not  generally  known  that  the  idea  of  a  week  of  united 
prayer  was  originally  a  missionary  conception.  The 
first  call  was  issued  from  a  mission  Held,  and  was 
written  by  the  late  Dr.  J.  H.  Morrison,  of  the  Amer- 
can  Presbyterian  Mission  in  North  India.  The 
thought  of  that  eminent  man  was  that  the  whole 
Christian  world  might  be  united  in  earnest  prayer  for 
the  promised  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon  all  na- 
tions, and  the  first  call  made  mention  of  this  as  the 
sole  object  of  the  united  petitions  before  the  throne 
of  mercy.  It  was  a  sublime  idea,  and  it  is  a  thousand 
thousand  pities  that  it  was  so  soon  set  aside.  The 
Evangelical  Alliance  at  an  early  day  assumed  the  man- 
agement of  this  great  movement,  and  in  the  hands  of 
men,  some  of  whom  did  not  know  what  a  prayer- 
meeting  meant,  and  who  did  not  dream  that  a  pente- 
costal  scene  had  appeared  on  earth  for  eighteen  cent- 
uries, the  grand  idea  of  Dr.  Morrison  was  quickly 
thrust  aside,  and  so  completely  thrust  aside  that  at 
least  on  one  occasion  the  annual  call  contained  no  al- 
lusion to  the  Holy  Spirit  at  all  !  It  is  time  to  insist 
on  a  reform  in  this  respect.  The  work  of  united 
prayer — a  prayer  in  which  all  the  nations  unite  — 
ought,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  to  be  a  mission- 
ary week,  a  week  of  missionary  prayer.  It  is  a  week 
of  prayer  for  the  world,  and  for  such  a  world  as  ours 
prayer  can  hardly  be  other  than  missionary  in  its 
character.  It  ought  to  be  prayer,  too,  for  the  full  and 
final  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  this  is  the 


ISO  Missionary  Addresses. 

consummation  of  all  missionary  labor,  the  realization 
of  all  missionary  faith  and  hope. 

4.  This  hope  of  a  world's  pentecost,  and  especially 
its  connection  with  the  work  of  the  world's  conver- 
sion, puts  a  new  meaning  into  the  word  missionary. 
A  missionary  is  usually  regarded  as  a  good  kind  of  a 
man  engaged  with  indifferent  success  in  doing  an 
impossible  work.  He  is  saving  a  few  fellow-creatures 
from  a  wreck  which  is  fast  sinking,  but  he  succeeds 
in  saving  but  a  few.  He  is  trying  to  stem  a  flood- 
tide  of  wickedness  which  rises  faster  every  year,  and 
he  is  doomed  to  certain  failure.  Of  all  human  tasks 
his  is  usually  regarded  as  the  most  hopeless.  As  a 
good  man  once  expressed  it  to  me,  "  You  are  doing  a 
good  work,  and  I  respect  and  honor  you  for  it,  but  I 
must  say  it  seems  like  trying  to  dip  out  the  water  of 
the  ocean  with  a  tea-cup."  As  if  Moses  had  to  use 
a  tea-cup  to  clear  the  water  out  of  his  way  when  he 
crossed  the  Red  Sea  !  God  did  the  work,  and  yet  if 
there  had  been  no  Moses  there  the  work  would  not 
have  been  done.  The  missionary's  chief  work,  his  ul- 
timate work,  is  that  of  preparing  agencies  for  the 
divine  co-operation.  A  century  ago  men  could  not 
have  believed  that  huge  steamers  would  soon  plow  the 
ocean  in  the  very  eye  of  the  fiercest  wind,  that  heavy 
cars  would  fly  over  the  country  as  if  on  wings,  that 
they  would  plunge  through  mountains  or  scale  their 
summits,  and  all  the  year  round  move  over  the  world 
with  the  ease  and  precision  of  a  clock  on  the  mantel- 
piece. In  those  dull  days  no  boy  in  the  world  seemed 
more  idly  employed  than  the  little  Scotch  lad  watch- 
ing the  lid  of  his  mother's  kettle  rising  and  falling 
by  the  force  of  steam.     And  yet  that  boy  was  equal 


The  World's  Pentecost.  187 

to  any  hundred  million  men  at  that  time  living  on  the 
globe.  He  was  to  teach  men  how  to  co-operate  with 
the  tremendous  natural  forces  which  surrounded  them 
on  every  hand,  and  in  doing  so  wTas  to  revolutionize 
the  industrial  world. 

The  missionary  is  no  dreamer.  He  is  a  practical 
man.  His  vision  pierces  the  heavens  above  him  and 
penetrates  far  into  the  dim  regions  before  him.  He 
sees  the  hand  of  God  upon  the  nations.  He  reads 
the  promise  of  God  in  letters  of  light  ever  before 
him.  He  knows  that  he  is  surrounded  by  omnipotent 
spiritual  forces,  by  co-operating  with  which  the  relig- 
ious world  can  be  revolutionized.  His  mission  is  in- 
deed to  save  men,  but  his  ultimate  mission  is  to  pre- 
pare effective  agencies  through  which  the  great 
spiritual  forces  of  Christ's  kingdom  can  be  made  to 
co-operate  in  the  work  of  the  salvation  of  the  race. 
He  never  forgets  that  a  Christian  in  his  best  estate  is 
but  a  co-worker  with  God,  and  he  applies  this  law  of 
the  kingdom  of  grace  in  all  its  length  and  breadth  to 
the  work  wmich  he  has  in  hand.  He  has  surveyed  the 
work  before  him,  has  studied  the  situation  carefully, 
has  grasped  the  full  magnitude  of  his  task,  but  he  has 
clone  more  than  this.  He  has  studied  the  resources 
of  his  Master,  has  weighed  the  spiritual  against  the 
material,  and  has  calculated  the  changed  conditions  of 
the  moral  world  when  a  Stephen  shall  walk  the  street 
of  every  village,  when  a  Paul  shall  reason  in  every 
college,  when  an  Apollos  shall  preach  in  every  cathe- 
dral, and  when  a  Niagara  of  blessing  shall  pour  down 
where  now  there  flows  only  the  silent  little  rill.  He 
is  working  for  coming  years,  building  for  future 
generations,  and  of  all  human  workmanship  none  will 


188  Missionary  Addresses. 

be  found,  when   tested  by  time  and  change,  to  be 
more  abiding  than  his. 

5.  This  hope  of  a  world's  pentecost  furnishes  an 
effectual  reply  to  what  might  be  called  a  new  gospel 
of  despair,  an  affirmation,  and  too  often  a  proclama- 
tion, of  the  inefficiency  of  the  Gospel.  The  very 
foundations  of  the  faith  and  zeal  of  thousands  are 
sapped  by  a  doctrine  somewhat  like  this  :  that  where 
grace  abounded  sin  did  much  more  abound ;  that 
mighty  as  is  Jesus  to  save,  Satan  is  still  mightier  to 
destroy ;  that  great  as  are  the  victories  of  the  cross, 
the  triumphs  of  the  serpent  are  greater ;  and  that,  de- 
spite all  that  God  and  holy  men  are  doing,  or  can  do, 
the  world  is  growing  worse,  and  is  hastening  to  its 
doom.  The  Gospel  has  failed,  is  failing,  and  must 
continue  to  fail  even  unto  the  end.  It  is  easy  to  un- 
derstand how  plausible  such  views  may  be  made  to 
appear,  especially  to  those  who  labor  hard  and  long 
without  sign  of  fruit ;  who  see  sin  enthroned  in  the 
world's  high  places,  and  who  see  iniquity  in  a  thou- 
sand forms  running  riot  among  the  perishing  multi- 
tad  es  of  earth  ;  but,  no  matter  how  easy  it  is  to  ac- 
count for  such  mistaken  views,  it  is  high  time  to  cor- 
rect them.  It  is  more  than  time  to  proclaim  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  that  the  power  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  has  never  yet  been  fully  tested,  has  never  been 
half  tested,  and  that  the  great  victories  of  the  cross 
are  still  in  the  future.  The  power  that  came  to  earth 
on  the  morning  of  Pentecost  has  never  been  in- 
creased, and  never  can  be  increased,  but  it  has  never 
yet  been  utilized  in  full  measure  by  the  universal 
Church  of  God,  and  until  it  is  so  utilized  it  is  useless 
to  talk  about  a  limit  to  Christian  possibilities.     The 


The  World's  Pentecost.  180 

manufacturer  who  builds  his  mill  at  the  edge  of  Ni- 
agara has  no  right  to  talk  about  want  of  power  in  the 
stream  until  he  connects  his  machinery  with  the  cata- 
ract. The  doleful  cry  of  those  who  insist  on  giving 
up  the  struggle,  and  who  maintain  that  the  Gospel 
cannot  win  its  way  among  all  nations  and  was  never 
intended  to  save  all  nations,  is  prompted  by  the  mis- 
taken notion  that  the  resources  of  Pentecost  are  ex- 
hausted, that  the  Gospel  has  already  done  its  best,  and 
that  it  is  useless  to  hope  for  victory  to  rise  out  of  the 
ashes  of  failure. 

Over  against  this  mournful  and  harmful  error  we 
should  set  up  our  banner  inscribed  with  the  motto, 
"  Grace  abounds."  We  should  look  back  at  Pente- 
cost and  take  new  hope  and  new  courage.  Beautiful 
as  is  the  picture  which  it  presents  to  our  view,  it  is 
but  an  opening  flower.  It  conceals  more  of  beauty, 
and  sweetness,  and  grace,  and  power  than  it  displays. 
The  great  social  problems  of  the  day  are  to  be  solved 
by  it,  the  bitter  streams  of  human  life  sweetened  by 
it,  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  illuminated  by  its 
brightness.  To  say  that  the  idols  shall  all  be  thrown 
down  is  to  say  but  little  indeed.  The  great  sins  of 
the  nations,  the  abominations  of  mankind,  the  flaunt- 
ing wickedness  of  men,  the  oppression  of  the  poor, 
the  crimes  which  defy  heaven,  and  darken  earth  for 
evermore,  the  whole  viper  brood  of  black  iniquities 
taught  to  the  race  by  the  prince  of  darkness,  shall  be 
uprooted  and  destroyed,  and  the  Prince  of  Peace  shall 
in  very  deed  reign  over  the  children  of  men. 

6.  ISTot  only  many  Christian  thinkers,  but  many 
who  think  little  of  Christianity  as  a  permanent  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  race,  look  with  gloomy 


190  Missionary  Addresses. 

apprehension  at  the  rapid  changes  which  are  taking 
place  in  the  social  world.  Sometimes  it  looks  as  if 
we  would  soon  have  to  recast  our  modern  civilization. 
All  manner  of  forces  seem  abnormally  active.  The 
man  of  toil  begins  to  speak  in  a  tone  never  heard 
from  his  lips  before.  The  man  of  wealth  widens  and 
deepens  the  gulf  which  separates  between  him  and 
his  fellow-men,  and  the  man  of  poverty  gazes  at  him 
across  the  gulf  in  sullen  defiance.  Social  madmen 
put  out  their  eyes,  and  then  grope  around  in 
search  of  huge  supporting  pillars  which  they  may 
pull  down  upon  innocent  and  guilty,  and  thus  invoke 
ruin  for  ruin's  sake.  Man  deserts  the  sweet  and 
beautiful  country,  and  busies  himself  in  the  noisome 
city.  Yast  multitudes  of  young  people  are  growing 
up  in  habits  of  dangerous  vice.  Strange  doctrines 
are  heard  on  every  hand,  and  thoughtful  men  are 
disquieted  more  and  more  as  they  open  their  eyes 
every  morning  to  see  some  new  token  of  change, 
some  new  menace  to  what  we  have  regarded  as  our 
settled  civilization. 

That  we  are  living  in  the  midst  of  portentous 
changes,  and  on  the  eve  of  great  events,  is  but  too 
evident.  But  to  the  Christian  there  ought  to  be  in 
all  this  no  ground  of  discouragement,  much  less  of 
despair.  God  knew  of  all  these  changes,  of  all  this 
ferment,  of  all  the  necessities  of  the  crisis,  before  he 
appointed  the  date  of  Pentecost,  and  before  he  fixed 
the  measure,  or  filled  out  the  list  of  blessings  to  be 
vouchsafed  to  the  race  in  connection  with  it.  As 
has  often  been  said,  God  is  never  taken  by  surprise. 
What  the  Gospel  can  do  for  the  world  is  yet  to  b» 
seen.     It  is  quite  possible  that  amazing  changes  will 


The  World's  Pentecost.  191 

be  introduced  into  our  civilization,  but  why  must  we 
assume  that  they  will  all  be  for  the  worse  \  Why 
not,  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  hope,  look  for  a  healing 
of  social, ills,  a  lessening  of  human  woes,  and  a  sweet- 
ening of  human  sorrows  ?  For  one,  I  look  toward  the 
future  with  a  calm  expectation  of  a  better  time  coin- 
ing. I  live  in  the  confident  assurance  that  in  Pente- 
cost God  included  abundant  provision  for  every  spir- 
itual emergency  to  the  end  of  time,  and  that  instead 
of  yielding  to  despair  we  should  seek  for  help  and 
guidance  at  the  only  source  of  help  to  which  we 
can  go. 

It  has  long  seemed  to  me  that  as  Christians  we  are 
inclined  to  be  a  little  ashamed  of  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  Pentecost.  The  words  communism  and 
socialism  are  terms  of  evil  omen  in  our  generation, 
and  hence  we  incline  to  shrink  from  commending 
the  example  of  the  first  Christians,  who  had  all  things 
in  common.  The  explanations  of  this  phase  of  their 
social  life  by  some  commentators  would  be  ludicrous 
if  they  were  not  pitiable.  The  poor  Christians  of 
that  day — as  magnificent  men  as  ever  trod  the  earth 
— are  said  to  have  been  simple,  child-like  people  who 
fell  into  a  great  error.  They  knew  no  better !  They 
set  us  no  example,  and  we  must  not  imitate  them 
lest  we  become  socialists !  I  cannot  here  discuss  this 
question,  but  may  only  say  that  every  line  of  that 
brief  history  is  precious,  and  is  worthy  of  most 
prayerful  study.  The  early  Christians  knew  nothing 
of  modern  socialism,  but  they  knew  and  to  a  large 
extent  brought  into  active  operation  the  socialism  of 
love.  That  their  example  wTill  ever  be  copied  in  full 
is  not  certain :  that  their  spirit  will  be  imbibed  by 


192  Missionary  Addresses. 

the  universal  Church  of  Christ  is  as  certain  as  is  the 
coming  of  a  great  pentecostal  noonday  of  Christian 
life  throughout  the  world. 

We  do  wrong  to  shirk  the  great  questions  of  the 
coming  days.  We  do  wrong  to  shrug  our  shoulders 
and  turn  away  when  we  hear  of  anarchist,  and  Nihil- 
ist, and  communist,  and  socialist.  These  men  are 
the  victims  of  some  great  errors,  but  beyond  all  pos- 
sible doubt  they  are  the  possessors  of  some  vital 
truths.  The  very  worst  among  them  have  grasped 
a  few  great  principles,  while  the  best  among  them 
are  any  thing  but  crazed  madmen  or  dangerous  fa- 
natics. They  live  and  move  where  the  sigh  of  the 
oppressed  is  forever  falling  upon  the  ear,  and  in  their 
hatred  of  oppression,  their  love  of  right,  and  their  cry 
for  justice,  they  have  a  right  to  the  sympathy  of 
every  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ.  What  are  we  do? 
Have  we  no  hope  for  such  men  %  No  answer  to  their 
questions?  Nothing  to  say  to  them,  unless  it  be  to 
assure  them  that  the  world  is  so  very  bad  that  God 
will  destroy  it  soon  ?  No ;  we  can  tell  them  some- 
thing better  than  this.  There  is  hope  for  the  world. 
God  will,  by  a  wide  effusion  of  the  pentecostal  bless- 
ing, bring  in  a  better  spirit  among  men.  He  will 
make  every  man  a  giver,  every  man  a  helper,  and 
by  reversing  the  law  of  selfishness  will  take  bitter- 
ness out  of  human  life,  and  transform  society  as  eas- 
ily and  as  thoroughly  as  he  now  transforms  a  human 
heart. 

7.  One  of  the  most  powerful  writers  on  missionary 
topics  of  the  present  day  has  recently  said  that  he 
dare  not  speak  of  a  second  century  of  missions. 
Aside  from  prophecy,  he  sees  in  the  rapid  increase  of 


The  World's  Pentecost.  193 

population  a  necessity  for  the  early  termination  of 
the  present  dispensation.  The  over-taxed  earth  will 
no  longer  be  able  to  support  its  dwellers.  This  is 
brought  forward  in  a  missionary  discussion,  and  the 
missionary  in  the  East,  who  toils  in  a  country  so 
thronged  with  inhabitants  that  it  seems  like  a  vast 
human  ant-hill,  is  often  oppressed  with  similar 
thoughts.  The  question  of  a  redundant  population 
is  one  of  the  great  questions  of  the  day.  The  mis- 
sionary has  to  face  it,  and  it  stands  connected  with 
the  whole  subject  we  have  just  been  discussing.  The 
Darwinian  philosopher  looks  coldly  on,  and  sees  with- 
out emotion  the  strongest  race  emerging  from  a  tierce 
struggle  and  building  its  home  upon  the  graves  of 
the  weaker  races  which  it  has  destroyed.  The  states- 
man surveys  the  scene,  and  sees  relief  from  the  com- 
ing pressure  only  in  great  famines  and  wasting  pesti- 
lences, which  must  periodically  devastate  the  earth  in 
order  to  keep  down  its  population.  Christian  think- 
ers divide  into  two  camps.  In  one  are  found  men 
who  see  no  relief  from  any  source,  and  hence  accept 
the  easy  but  awful  conclusion  that  God  will  soon  de- 
stroy the  wicked  from  the  earth,  and  wind  up  the  dis- 
pensation. In  the  other  camp  are  found  children  of 
hope,  those  who  believe  that  Pentecost  did  not  exhaust 
the  divine  reservoir,  that  on  earth  no  exigency  can 
arise  for  which  God's  prevision  has  not  furnished 
every  thing  needed  to  meet  it,  and  who  consequently 
look  calmly  on,  and  wait  to  see  God's  omnipotent 
hand  performing  mighty  wonders  for  the  teeming 
race. 

The  writer  referred  to  speaks  of  the  impossibility 
of  furnishing  employment  to  the  myriad  workmen 


194  Missionary  Addresses. 

who  will  clamor  for  it.  Let  no  man  be  disturbed  by 
such  a  misgiving.  God  will  find  in  every  age  abun- 
dant work  for  the  human  race.  Man  has  hardly  yet 
learned  the  meaning  of  the  word  labor ;  he  has  hardly 
commenced  the  big  task  given  him  to  do.  In  the  be- 
ginning he  was  set  to  work  to  subdue  the  earth,  and 
that  great  contract  still  lies  unfinished  before  him. 
He  has  but  lightly  touched  it  as  yet,  and  many  gen- 
erations must  pass  before  it  is  completed.  Men  talk 
of  the  race  dying  of  starvation — why,  the  undrained 
swamps  of  the  world  would,  if  cleared  and  cultivated, 
almost  feed  all  the  race  now  living.  Talk  of  no  labor 
beiiiir  found  !  The  time  will  come  when  five  liun- 
dred  million  men  will  be  employed  in  reclaiming  the 
African  Sahara,  and  as  many  more  the  deserts  of 
Asia.  When  all  the  wide  earth  blooms  in  verdure 
and  beauty,  and  gratefully  yields  up  its  rich  fruitage 
to  those  who  lightly  toil  upon  its  surface,  men  will 
smile  as  they  read  of  a  time  when  grave  men  were 
persuaded  that  God  had  made  a  world  which  was  not 
big  enough  to  hold  the  men  whom  he  himself  had 
placed  upon  it.  They  will  tell  the  story,  and  wonder 
how  so  strange  an  error  could  have  found  acceptance, 
till  some  sage  will  explain  that  it  was  because  they 
had  put  limits  upon  their  faith,  limits  upon  the  Gos- 
pel, and  limits  upon  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 

We  all  love  to  think  of  the  immortal  splendor 
which  awaits  us  when  Christ  shall  be  manifested  in 
his  glory.  We  shall  be  like  him.  The  frail  earthen 
vessel  shall  be  changed  into  the  likeness  of  him  who 
now  dignifies  it  by  making  it  his  temple.  That  final 
consummation  will  be  unspeakably  glorious,  but  in 
the  meantime  we  do  not  despise  the  "  earnest "  which 


The  World's  Pentecost.  195 

we  enjoy  even  here.  Heaven  begins  to  the  believer 
in  this  present  life,  and  the  breaking  of  the  earthen 
vessel  is  what  Charles  Wesley  beautifully  calls  "  more 
of  heaven."  As  with  man  and  the  tabernacle  in 
which  he  lives,  so  with  the  earth  on  which  he  lives. 
The  brief  but  sublime  description  which  Paul  gives, 
of  weary  nature  groaning  with  intense  expectancy  as 
she  wTaits  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  is 
not  surpassed  in  the  grandeur  of  its  conception  by 
any  thing  ever  expressed  in  human  language.  When 
we  put  on  our  immortal  robe  the  dear  old  earth  shall 
be  robed  also,  and  become  the  immortal  home  of  an 
immortal  race.  But  in  the  meantime  is  she  to  have 
no  "earnest"  of  that  eternal  day  of  glory?  My 
Bible  speaks  of  such  a  time ;  a  bright  and  happy  time 
when  a  Christian  race  shall  live  upon  this  very  earth 
of  ours,  when  the  powers  of  evil  shall  have  been  sub- 
dued and  the  powers  of  nature  brought  under  a  won- 
derful degree  of  control. 

Man  and  earth  alike  shall  then  enjoy  a  long  earnest 
of  that  eternal  spring-time  when  God  shall  make  all 
things  new. 


196  Missionary  Addresses. 


THE  PROPHET  TO  THE  NATIONS. 

"  I  ordained  thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations."  —  Jer.  ? 

THE  prophet  is,  perhaps,  the  grandest  character 
to  be  seen  upon  the  stage  of  history.  He  is 
God's  spokesman.  He  is  the  messenger  of  the  King 
of  kings  to  his  subjects,  and  as  such  he  ranks  the 
earthly  monarch  on  his  throne.  He  must  be  a  man 
of  lofty  courage  and  lofty  character — brave,  and 
pure,  and  true.  He  is,  and  has  always  been,  the 
apostle  of  freedom  and  the  apostle  of  truth,  and 
hence  his  voice  has  ever  been  heard  in  the  high 
places  of  human  progress. 

Among  the  prophets  mentioned  in  the  Bible  there 
were  two,  one  in  each  dispensation,  who  received 
peculiar  commissions.  When  Jeremiah  was  a  young 
man  he  received  his  call  to  go  forth  and  speak  for 
God,  but,  unlike  most  of  his  brethren,  his  message 
was  not  to  one  people,  or  even  to  two  or  three.  He 
was  ordained  to  be  "a  prophet  unto  the  nations." 
Centuries  passed,  and  the  greatest  prophet  of  the  New 
Testament  dispensation  was  on  his  lonely  isle  of  ban- 
ishment when  God  opened  before  his  vision  the  most 
wonderful  revelation  of  hidden  mysteries  ever  vouch- 
safed to  any  inspired  seer.  He  saw  heaven  opened 
above  him,  and  earth  torn  and  tossed  beneath  him, 
but  in  the  midst  of  the  overwhelming  grandeur  of 
these  revelations  his  personal  duty  was  not  to  be  for- 
gotten.    His  work  was  not  done.     It  wTas  to  open  up 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  197 

anew.  "  Thou  must  prophesy  again  before  many 
peoples,  and  nations,  and  tongues,"  was  the  commis- 
sion given  him,  and  henceforth  the  world  was  to  be 
his  field  of  labor. 

It  lias  often  seemed  to  me,  especially  of  late,  that, 
of  all  men,  the  missionary  receives  a  commission  most 
like  that  given  to  these  two  holy  men  of  old.  He  is 
a  prophet  sent  unto  the  nations.  His  field,  especially 
in  recent  years,  has  become  a  very  wide  one.  He 
often  passes  from  nation  to  nation,  he  moves  in  the 
midst  of  vast  multitudes,  he  hears  many  different 
tongues,  and  he  finds  himself  confronting  many  hos- 
tile interests  which  are  the  common  heritage  of  many 
nations.  He  is  no  longer  a  prophet  sent  to  a  tribe, 
but  a  messenger  of  God  sent  to  great  nations ;  and  in 
this  character  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  examine  briefly 
his  commission,  his  audience,  his  message,  and  the 
wide  scope  which  his  work  assumes.  But  before 
speaking  of  the  missionary  in  this  character  it  is  but 
proper  that  we  briefly  consider  the  office  and  charac- 
ter of  the  Christian  prophet.  What  is  a  prophet,  in 
the  New  Testament  sense  of  the  word  ? 

The  gift  of  prophecy,  as  you  no  doubt  know,  is 
generally  understood  to  mean  the  power  to  foretell 
future  events.  But  this  is  not  the  scriptural  meaning 
of  the  term.  It  is  a  modern  interpretation  which  has 
incorrectly  been  thrust  upon  the  word,  and  which 
finds  no  sanction  in  the  Bible.  In  the  days  of  King 
James  the  word  prophecy,  or  prophesying,  was  very 
commonly  used  in  England  in  the  sense  of  our  word 
preaching,  and  the  restricted  use  of  the  wTord  in  our 
current  English  was  then  unknown.  A  prophet  is 
not  necessarily  a  man  who  foretells,  but  a  man  who 


193  Missionary  Addresses. 

forth  tells ;  a  man  who  speaks  for  God,  and  who 
speaks  not  only  by  God's  authority,  but  by  the  help 
specially  given  of  God's  Spirit.  He  can  speak  for 
God,  in  the  most  literal  sense  of  the  word,  without 
foretelling  any  event  whatever.  The  power  to  fore- 
tell events  is  incidental  to  the  prophet,  and  it  is  not 
probable  that  it  is  exercised  to  any  great  extent  by 
even  the  most  deeply  inspired  Christians  of  the  pres- 
ent day. 

The  earliest  prophets  were  called  seers,  and  were 
men  who  saw  scenes  passing  in  vision  before  the  eye 
of  their  minds  which  they  were  able  to  describe  in 
elevated  or  inspired  language.  Balaam  was  a  seer, 
and  illustrated  very  vividly  this  ancient  mode  of 
prophesying.  This  method  of  conveying  truth  to 
the  mind  gradually  gave  way  to  more  direct  utter- 
ances, the  speaker  being  directly  inspired  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  speaking  as  the  Spirit  gave  him 
utterance.  Moses  was  a  prophet  in  the  highest  and 
best  sense  of  the  term,  and  in  his  day  the  gift  of 
prophecy  became  somewhat  diffused  among  the  peo- 
ple, notably  so  in  the  case  of  the  elders  who  proph- 
esied. It  was  not  until  a  later  age,  however,  that  an 
order  of  prophets  arose  among  the  Hebrews,  and  it 
is  chiefly  to  those  noble  men  known  as  "  the  proph- 
ets" that  we  must  look  for  the  forerunners  of  the 
New  Testament  prophets.  Among  these  Elijah 
stands  pre-eminent,  but  from  Samuel  to  Malacbi  a 
long  succession  of  gifted,  true,  and  noble  men  ap- 
peared from  time  to  time  among  God's  chosen  people, 
and,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  great  Jehovah, 
kept  them  from  utterly  abandoning  the  faith  of  their 
fathers,   and  lapsing  into  the  gross  idolatry  of   the 


The  Pjrophet  to  the  Nations.  190 

nations  around  them.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these 
prophets  taught  the  people  that  the  precious  gift  ex- 
ercised by  him  was  in  a  later  day  to  become  much 
more  widely  diffused  among  God's  servants.  It  was 
no  longer  to  be  the  special  heritage  of  a  chosen  few, 
but  the  common  privilege  of  the  great  mass  of  be- 
lievers. The  very  servant-girls  of  the  household  were 
to  exercise  the  gift,  and  sons  and  daughters  alike  were 
to  open  their  mouths  and  speak  as  the  Spirit  should 
give  them  utterance.  In  short,  the  people  of  God 
were  to  become  a  prophesying  people. 

How  all  this  was  fulfilled  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
need  not  be  told.  It  all  came  to  pass,  literally  as  the 
olden  prophet  had  foretold,  and  among  the  first 
Christians  the  gift  of  prophecy  was  the  very  common 
gift  of  large  numbers  of  believers.  This  was  the 
chief  of  all  the  gifts  bestowed,  even  as  love  was  the 
chief  of  the  graces.  It  was  through  the  exercise  of 
this  gift  that  sinners  were  convicted  and  believers 
edified,  and  hence  Paul  exhorted  the  Corinthian 
Christians  to  covet  to  prophesy,  while  the  more 
highly  prized  gift  of  tongues  was  spoken  of  as  a 
thing  to  be  tolerated  only,  but  not  as  an  object  of 
desire.  In  the  public  meetings  of  that  day  it  was  a 
common  exercise  for  one  or  more  disciples  to  proph- 
esy, and  the  life  and  efficiency  of  the  whole  body 
very  largely  depended  upon  the  proper  use  of  this 
gift.  But  while  many  were  accustomed  more  or  less 
frequently  to  exercise  this  gift,  all  were  not  known  as 
prophets.  Among  the  early  Christians,  as  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews,  certain  men  and  women  were 
known  as  prophets  in  a  special  sense,  as  those  upon 
whom  the  prophetic   unction    rested  more  continu- 


200  Missionary  Addresses. 

ously,  and  in  a  fuller  measure,  than  in  tlie  case  of 
others.  These  were  specially  recognized  as  prophets, 
and  occupied  a  position  of  great  responsibility  among 
the  people.  They  were  the  preachers  of  that  early 
day,  men  and  women  anointed  to  preach  the  word  by 
the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit  sent  down  from  heaven. 

These  New  Testament  prophets  did  not  utter  in- 
voluntary speech,  but  rather  spoke  by  the  aid  of  the 
Spirit.  The  spirit  of  each  prophet  was  subject  to  the 
prophet ;  that  is,  each  one  consciously  used  the  light 
which  the  Spirit  graciously  shed  upon  his  mind  and 
heart,  but  the  words  and  reasoning  were  under  his 
own  control.  In  such  cases  God  only  gives  needed 
light,  and  within  certain  limits  no  special  illumination 
is  necessary,  but  to  whatever  extent  special  light  is 
necessary  it  is  graciously  given.  A  prophet  is  not  a 
man  speaking  in  a  trance,  or  a  man  so  filled  with 
holy  rapture  that  he  does  not  know  what  he  is  saying, 
or  a  man  carried  along  by  a  torrent  of  impetuous 
feeling  who  does  not  pause  to  measure  his  words. 
He  is  quite  the  opposite  of  all  this.  He  is  a  man 
who  remembers  that  God  has  sent  him,  that  he 
speaks  for  God,  that  he  has  a  message  which  he  must 
deliver  faithfully,  and  who  in  consequence  measures 
his  wTords  carefully,  keeps  a  firm  hand  on  his  fancy, 
commands  his  own  spirit,  and  relies  constantly  upon 
the  Spirit  of  God  to  help  him.  "When  God  spake 
through  Balaam's  ass  the  dumb  brute  was  gifted  with 
involuntary  speech,  but  when  he  sends  a  message  by 
human  lips  the  responsible  messenger  is  expected  to 
perform  his  duty  as  a  responsible  agent  of  the  Lord 
and  Master  of  us  all. 

This  prophetic  gift  is  held  in  larger  or  more  re- 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  201 

stricted  measure  as  God  in  his  infinite  wisdom  sees 
fit  to  bestow.  In  both  ancient  and  modern  times  the 
rule  has  been  the  same.  Not  only  do  some  receive  a 
larger  measure  of  divine  aid  than  others,  but  some  re- 
ceive a  larger  measure  at  certain  times,  or  for  certain 
special  emergencies,  than  at  other  times.  God  is  the 
author  and  finisher  of  this  and  every  gift,  and  we 
must  accept  reverently  and  thankfully  what  he  gives, 
as  he  gives  it,  and  when  he  gives  it.  But  in  what- 
ever measure  given,  the  Church  of  Christ  should 
covet  earnestly  this  best  gift.  A  living  Church 
cannot  do  without  it.  If  the  lips  of  Christians  gen- 
erally could  only  be  unsealed,  if  men  and  women  in 
every  congregation  could  be  found  ready  and  able  to 
speak  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance,  a  new  vigor 
would  be  infused  into  our  modern  Christianity.  A 
witnessing  Church  is  a  prophesying  Church,  and  testi- 
mony, to  be  effective,  must  take  on  this  peculiar  form. 
The  dumbness  of  Christendom  to-day  is,  perhaps,  the 
chief  cause  of  the  spiritual  weakness  of  Christianity  ; 
and  not  in  the  mission-fields  of  the  world  alone,  but 
in  all  the  Churches  of  Christendom  the  demand  of 
the  hour  is  for  a  mighty  host  of  anointed  prophets  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Having  thus  briefly  noticed  the  character  of  New 
Testament  prophecy,  let  us  proceed  to  consider  the 
calling  and  career  of  the  modern  prophet  unto  the 
nations :  the  missionary  sent  forth  from  Christian 
lands  to  preach  Christ  to  tribes  and  nations  sitting  in 
darkness,  sitting  in  the  shadow  of  moral  and  spiritual 
death. 

1.  The  missionary,  like  the  prophet,  is  a  man  sent. 
Of  John  the  Baptist  it  was  said  that  he  was  "  a  man 


202  Missionary  Addresses. 

sent  from  God."  That  brief  statement  places  John 
upon  a  pedestal  of  moral  greatness  above  his  fellows. 
His  commission  from  God  was  like  adamant  under 
his  feet,  and  glory  above  his  head.  The  modern 
prophet  to  the  nations,  no  less  than  John,  is  a  man 
sent  from  God.  He,  too,  has  a  divine  commission. 
A  prophet  without  a  call  is  like  an  embassador  with- 
out his  credentials.  I  trust  that  many  of  you  will 
yet  go  to  the  mission-field,  but  if  so,  let  it  be  said  of 
each  one  not  only  that  he  went,  but  that  he  was  sent. 
It  will  add  to  your  conscious  strength  to  know  that 
God  has  sent  you  forth ;  it  will  add  to  your  moral 
weight  among  those  to  whom  you  go,and  it  will  arm 
you  against  a  thousand  temptations  in  the  weary  days 
and  years  which  lie  before  you.  "  Have  not  I  sent 
thee?"  was  the  appeal  of  Jehovah  to  the  hesitating 
Gideon,  and  the  assurance  nerved  that  extraordinary 
man  for  the  otherwise  hopeless  task  which  lay  before 
him.  To  a  thousand  missionaries  out  in  the  field  to- 
day the  recollection  of  God's  call,  the  quiet  assurance 
that  they  are  at  the  post  which  God  has  chosen  for 
them,  is  enough  to  dispel  every  lowering  cloud  of 
doubt,  and  nerve  both  heart  and  arm  for  new 
struggles  and  new  victories. 

I  know  but  too  well  how  ready  the  adversary  is  to 
take  advantage  of  statements  of  this  kind,  and  to 
suggest  that  inasmuch  as  you  have  never  received  an 
extraordinary  call  such  as  Moses  or  Paul  received, 
therefore  it  would  not  be  well  for  you  to  think 
farther  of  entering  the  mission  field.  I  find  very 
many  young  people  hesitating  over  doubts  of  this 
kind,  and  too  many  of  them  apparently  willing  to  ac- 
cept any  excuse  which  will  set  their  conscience  at 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  203 

rest,  and  permit  them  to  remain  at  home.  To  all 
such  I  would  say  that  it  is  no  new  thing  for  a  prophet 
to  hesitate,  and  beg  to  be  excused,  and  ask  for  addi- 
tional tokens,  and  look  almost  eagerly  for  any  possible 
way  of  escape  from  an  unsought  and  undesired  duty. 
To  one  who  has  had  experience  in  such  matters  the 
presence  of  this  kind  of  hesitancy  often  seems  but 
another  evidence  of  a  genuine  call.  It  is  well  enough 
to  examine  the  ground  carefully,  to  weigh  the  evi- 
dences, to  try  the  spirits,  and  resolutely  to  refuse  to 
run  before  being  sent,  but  it  is  positively  perilous  to 
dismiss  the  subject  from  the  mind  simply  because  the 
young  prophet  has  not  received  the  peculiar  kind  of 
a  call  which  he  thinks  ought  to  be  given.  God  has  a 
thousand  ways  of  arresting  the  attention  of  the  mind, 
and  impressing  the  heart,  and  directing  the  purpose, 
and  in  every  case  he  will  select  a  method  other  than 
that  which  frail  human  wisdom  dictates.  If  a  clear 
call  has  not  been  received,  or  if  doubt  of  any  kind 
intervenes,  the  safe  and  only  proper  course  to  pursue 
is  to  wait  on  God  for  light,  and  not  to  give  up  the 
issue  until  clearly  convinced  that  God  himself  leads 
the  inquirer  in  another  direction. 

Long  years  ago,  before  any  of  us  who  are  here  to- 
day were  born,  an  illustration  of  what  I  have  been 
saying  occurred  in  Ohio,  and  led  to  the  first  organiza- 
tion of  the  Missionary  Society  of  our  Church.  A 
colored  man  named  John  Stewart,  living  in  the  town 
of  Marietta,  was  awakened  and  very  clearly  converted 
to  God.  He  became  an  earnest  and  deeply  spiritual 
Christian,  but  did  not  at  first  give  special  promise  of 
usefulness.  He  was  a  man  of  prayer,  and  one  day 
wThen  talking  with  God  there  came  to  him,  as  often 
14 


2  U  Missionary  Addresses. 

comes  to  people  of  his  race,  a  strange  vision.  He 
thought  he  heard  strange  voices,  and  became  im- 
pressed that  God  would  have  him  go  to  some  people 
who  lived  in  a  north-east  direction.  He  set  out 
through  a  pathless  wilderness,  going  he  knew  not 
where,  to  a  people  of  whom  he  had  never  heard,  to 
deliver  God's  word  as  best  he  could.  He  was  a 
man  sent  from  God.  He  had  no  peculiar  gifts,  and 
went  upon  his  own  responsibility,  because  there  was 
no  one  at  hand  to  send  him,  or  to  sanction  his 
going.  He  wandered  on  until  he  reached  a  tribe  of 
Wyandot  Indians,  wTild  heathen  living  in  the  forest. 
He  found  a  drunken  half-breed  whom  he  enlisted 
as  his  interpreter,  and  through  him  he  began  to  de- 
liver his  message  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
simple  word  was  attended  with  extraordinary  power. 
Many  were  awakened  and  converted,  a  church  was 
organized,  and  in  this  way  was  begun  our  first  mis- 
sion among  the  heathen.  When  the  tidings  of  Stew- 
art's success  reached  the  white  -  settlements  an  ex- 
traordinary impression  was  produced,  and  very  soon 
some  leading  parties  began  to  collect  funds,  and  both 
East  and  West  a  cry  was  heard  for  the  organization  of 
a  missionary  society.  The  opportunity  was  a  golden 
one,  the  lesson  was  manifestly  from  above,  but  the 
Church  did  not  know  the  time  of  her  visitation.  A 
tardy  and  timid  commencement  was  made,  not  among 
the  heathen,  but  in  the  more  favored  home  regions, 
and  thus  nearly  half  a  century  of  precious  time  was 
lost  before  we  became  fairly  and  fully  committed  to 
this  great  enterprise.  But  the  lesson  taught  in  the 
beffinnino:  should  never  be  forgotten.  God  himself 
sent  our  first  missionary,  and  in  his  person  illustrated 


The  Pkopiiet  to  the  Nations.  205 

his  method  of  choosing  and  sending  forth  missionary 
prophets.  Other  John  Stewarts  are  yet  to  be  called, 
other  tribes  in  forest  wilds  or  on  desert  wastes  are  to 
be  reached,  and  we  must  for  all  time  to  come  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  God  sends  forth  his  own  mes- 
sengers. 

2.  Let  ns  in  the  next  place  take  a  glance  at  the 
audience  to  which  the  missionary  prophet  is  sent. 
The  old  ideal  of  a  missionary  at  work,  so  widely  pop- 
ularized by  cheap  wood-cuts,  was  that  of  a  good, 
kind-hearted,  and  patient  man,  sitting  in  front  of  a 
hut  and  in  the  scant  shade  of  a  crooked  palm-tree, 
engaged  in  teaching  half-clad  little  children  the  mys- 
teries veiled  within  the  leaves  of  an  American  spell- 
ing-book ;  or,  if  a  more  advanced  stage  of  the  work 
is  presented,  the  missionary  has  an  audience  of  two 
or  three  dozen  simple  men  and  women  to  whom  he 
is  expounding  God's  word,  and  who  constitute  the 
flock  over  which  he  has  been  made  overseer.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  many  a  good  and  faithful  missionary 
does  preach  to  a  mere  handful  of  converts,  and  many 
an  able  scholar  may  to-day  be  found  teaching  the 
alphabet  to  children,  but  initial  work  of  this  kind 
must  not  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  a  missionary's  life- 
work.  He  is  a  man  sent  to  a  nation,  or  may  be  to  a 
group  of  nations.  So  far  from  being  confined  to  a 
dozen  children  gathered  under  a  palm-tree,  he  is  soon 
to  speak  to  a  thousand  children  and  ten  thousand 
adults,  scattered  all  over  the  hills  and  plains  around 
him.     His  ultimate  audience  is  always  a  large  one. 

An  illustration  occurs  to  me  which  will  make  this 
plain.  About  three  years  ago  we  opened  a  mission 
station  in  Bengal.     A  little  village  school  was  opened 


206  Missionary  Addresses. 

in  a  small  mud-walled  building.  One  man  had  been 
baptized  in  the  village,  and  five  or  six  others  were  in- 
quirers. I  visited  the  place  and  made  inquiries  about 
the  region  round  about. 

"  How  many  villages  have  you  like  this  one  in  this 
immediate  vicinity  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  About  fifty,  but  more  if  you  take  in  a  wider 
region." 

"  Are  the  people  all  like  these  villagers  ? " 
"Yes;  just  such  as  you  see  here." 
"  And  are  the  villages  as  large  as  this  ? " 
"  Some  are  larger  and  some  smaller,  but  the  average 
will  be  as  large  as  this." 

"  Then  you  have  fifty  thousand  people  in  the  dis- 
trict, all  accessible,  all  eager  to  learn,  all  free  from 
strong  prejudice,  and  all  ready  to  receive  God's 
word?" 

"  Yes,  that  is  the  condition  of  these  villages." 
Now  you  can  see  at  a  glance  that  a  missionary  sent 
to  that  village  is  really  a  missionary  sent  to  fifty 
thousand  souls,  and  in  all  our  great  mission-fields  in 
the  heathen  world  it  seldom  happens  that  a  prophet 
is  sent  to  so  small  a  community  as  the  one  just  de- 
scribed. His  ultimate  audience  is  counted  by  the 
hundred  thousand.  He  may  not  with  his  own  lips  de- 
liver his  message  to  all  these  thousands,  but  directly 
or  indirectly  he  will  reach  them.  He  will  gather  a 
band  of  prophets  around  him,  he  will  make  long 
tours  through  the  country,  his  voice  will  be  heard  at 
fairs  and  every  place  of  public  concourse,  his  face  will 
become  familiar  on  every  highway,  and  every-where 
he  will  impress  himself  upon  the  people  through  the 
word  with  which  God  has  intrusted  him. 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  207 

The  wonderful  manner  in  which  God  has  opened 
the  doors  of  the  nations  to  his  prophets  is  one  of  the 
most  striking  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  No  preacher 
in  Europe  can  go  up  and  down  among  the  nations 
preaching  the  word  as  can  the  prophet  among  the 
nations  of  the  East.  Just  before  leaving  India  I  re- 
ceived urgent  calls  to  visit  two  cities  which  were 
more  than  four  thousand  miles  apart  in  opposite  di- 
rections !  Mr.  Hart,  our  missionary  brother  from 
China,  told  you  but  yesterday  of  more  than  two 
hundred  million  of  people  in  that  amazing  empire 
who  speak  the  same  tongue,  and  among  whom  the 
missionary  passes  freely  preaching  the  Word.  An- 
other brother  writes  to  me  in  a  somewhat  depre- 
ciatory tone  of  his  field;  he  almost  complains  that 
it  has  not  more  than  fifteen  million  inhabitants! 
Surely  these  are  the  times  when  men  are  sent  forth 
to  prophesy  unto  great  nations.  Never  in  all  the 
course  of  human  history  have  any  class  of  public 
speakers  had  such  vast  audiences,  and  never  before 
have  mortal  men  been  called  upon  to  bear  such 
weighty  responsibilies  as  now  fall  to  the  lot  of  those 
whom  the  Lord  God  of  the  holy  prophets  calls  and 
sends  forth  to  represent  him  even  unto  the  ends  of 
the  earth. 

3.  Such  being  the  audience  of  the  prophet,  let  us 
next  consider  the  message  with  which  he  is  intrusted. 
A  prophet  is  a  man  sent  from  God,  and  a  man  sent 
as  a  messenger  must  in  the  nature  of  the  case  be  in- 
trusted with  a  message.  He  would  be  discredited  in 
a  moment  if  unable  to  produce  his  message.  God's 
prophet  to  the  nations  has  a  commission  received 
directly  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  he  is  assisted  in 


208  Missionary  Addresses. 

delivering  it  by  the  same  power  as  that  which  inspires 
it.     What  is  this  message  % 

It  is  not  the  constant  repetition  of  a  single  sentence, 
like  Jonah's  proclamation  in  the  streets  of  Nineveh. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  if  in  that  case  we  have 
more  than  the  text  of  the  prophet's  discourses.  The 
humble  repentance  of  the  king  and  people  would  in- 
dicate that  their  sins  had  been  rebuked,  and  the  cause 
of  their  impending  judgment  faithfully  declared  to 
them.  In  like  manner  the  prophet  of  Jesus  is  sent 
with  a  message  which  is  not  so  much  contained  in  a 
certain  formula  as  in  the  spirit  which  pervades  all  he 
says.  The  Christian  preacher  or  prophet  is  sent 
forth  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  commissioned 
to  testify  concerning  his  Master.  He  is  to  tell  the 
world  what  he  knows  about  the  Saviour  of  sinners, 
about  his  death,  his  resurrection,  and  his  living 
forever  among  men.  Christ  himself  is  his  theme,  a 
living  theme,  forever  bright,  and  forever  new.  John 
tells  us  in  his  wonderful  Revelation  that  "  the  testi- 
mony of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy."  This  does 
not  mean,  as  is  usually  assumed,  that  all  the  Old 
Testament  prophets  bore  such  uniform  testimony  to 
the  coming  Messiah  that  this  part  of  their  prophecies 
became  the  dominating  element  of  the  whole,  that 
the  spirit  of  all  their  utterances  was  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  word  prophecy  had  a  wider  mean- 
ing in  the  age  in  which  John  wrote.  It  was  a  gift 
well  understood,  highly  prized,  and  widely  exercised 
among  the  Christians  then  living,  and  the  spirit  of 
their  prophecies,  the  spirit  of  Christian  prophecy  in 
every  era,  is  the  testimony  of  the  world's  Saviour. 
Whatever  else  may  be  incidental  to  the  special  dis- 


The  Pkopiiet  to  the  Nations.  209 

course,  this  is  ever  to  be  the  main  theme.  The  the- 
ologian, the  essayist,  the  lecturer,  the  orator,  may  each 
in  turn  enter  a  box**  called  a  pulpit,  and  discuss  any 
one  of  the  thousand  different  topics,  but  when  a  man 
prophesies,  when  he  speaks  by  the  direct  aid  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  as  the  Spirit  gives  him  utterance, 
his  theme  is  chosen  for  him,  his  message  is  in  his 
heart  and  on  his  lips,  and  he  tells  his  hearers  about 
Jesus  Christ. 

Just  here,  if  I  may  be  allowed  parenthetically  to 
throw  in  a  word  of  caution,  when  you  young  brethren 
come  to  have  charge  of  meetings  you  will  greatly 
enhance  the  value  of  your  class-meetings,  love-feasts, 
and  meetings  of  all  sorts  in  which  testimony  forms  a 
part  of  the  exercises,  if  you  make  the  people  under- 
stand that  the  most  genuine  testimony  is  that  which 
concerns  the  Master  rather  than  the  disciple.  Good 
men  and  women  sometimes  unconsciously  fall  into  a 
habit  of  talking  about  themselves,  and  while  an  indi- 
rect testimony  to  the  power  of  Christ  may  thus  be 
given,  yet  the  impression  produced  is  not  always 
what  it  should  be.  Each  disciple  should  tell  what  he 
knows  about  Jesus  Christ,  and  ever  make  it  his  chief 
object  to  convince  men  that  he  is  a  personal  witness 
to  the  fact  that  Jesus  lives,  and  lives  to  save. 

The  prophet  who  goes  among  the  heathen  should 
at  once  announce  in  whose  name  he  comes,  and  the 
purpose  of  his  coming.  He  need  not  waste  a  minute 
in  arguing  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  supreme 
Creator.  No  one,  not  even  the  demon-worshipers, 
will  deny  the  existence  of  God.  But  the  story  of  a 
divine  Saviour  is  new,  and  the  prophet  who  begins  to 
tell  what  he  knows  about  Jesus  Christ  quickly  dis- 


210  Missionary  Addresses. 

covers  that  bis  story  is  a  long  one.  It  is  the  old,  sad 
story  of  sin,  and  the  ruin  and  death  caused  by  sin  ; 
and  next  the  coining  of  God  incarnate  among  men, 
his  ministry,  suffering,  and  death,  his  rising  again, 
and,  above  all,  the  fact  that  he  now  lives,  is  present, 
loves  men,  and  is  mighty  to  save  them.  This  is  the 
message,  this  is  the  story,  old  as  the  Gospel,  and  yet 
forever  new.  A  wise  missionary,  one  who  under- 
stands his  errand  and  is  too  wise  to  be  easily  diverted 
from  it,  will  avoid  irritating  discussions,  and  will 
spend  more  time  in  proclaiming  truth  than  in  expos- 
ing error.  He  is  not  concerned  for  Christianity  as 
opposed  to  heathenism,  and  will  not  be  betrayed  into 
making  odious  comparisons  between  his  own  faith 
and  that  of  his  hearers.  His  mission  is  a  higher  one, 
and  he  remembers  whose  messenger  he  is  and  with 
what  message  he  is  intrusted.  His  sole  purpose  is  to 
hold  up  Jesus  Christ  before  the  people,  to  present 
him  as  the  very  embodiment  of  the  truth,  as  the 
Saviour  of  men,  and  the  hope  of  the  race,  and  from 
this  supreme  purpose  he  will  not  allow  himself  to  be 
diverted. 

I  need  not  remind  you  that  I  am  but  repeating 
Paul's  description  of  his  own  preaching,  "  We  preach 
Christ  crucified ; "  not  Christianity,  or  Christian  doc- 
trine, but  Christ,  and  Christ  as  crucified  for  a  sinning 
and  perishing  world.  In  these  modern  times  this  is 
sometimes  regarded  as  too  narrow  a  basis  for  a  suc- 
cessful preacher,  but  such  a  mistake  could  only  be 
founded  on  a  greater  mistake.  Some  men  talk  about 
preaching  only  the  Gospel,  and  seem  to  be  narrow 
men  in  consequence,  but  it  is  because  they  do  not 
preach  Christ.     They  master  a  dry  and  emotionless 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  211 

statement  of  Christian  doctrine  which  they  call  the 
Gospel,  and  proclaim  this  over  and  over  again,  all  the 
while  persuaded  that  they  are  displaying  extraordi- 
nary fidelity  to  the  truth,  and  wondering  that  men 
do  not  heed  their  words,  but  they  are  not  preaching 
Christ.  Their  platform  is  a  narrow  one,  but  Paul's 
was  as  wide  as  humanity,  as  wide  as  the  universe. 
The  man  who  preaches  Christ  has  a  new  story  and  a 
new  song  forever.  His  message  never  changes,  and 
yet  it  ever  and  forever  seems  to  be  clothed  with  new 
beauty  and  instinct  with  new  life.  Hold  up  a  prism 
in  that  sunlight  streaming  through  the  window  and 
you  throw  a  beautiful  little  picture  on  the  oppo- 
site wall.  It  has  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  arrayed 
in  perfect  order,  and  blended  in  pefect  proportion. 
Turn  the  glass  and  the  picture  changes,  but  its  beauty 
remains,  and  it  is  the  same  picture.  Turn  the  glass  a 
thousand  times,  and  a  thousand  variations  appear  in 
the  picture  on  the  wall,  and  yet  it  is  the  same.  The 
colors  never  change  their  order,  and  never  cease  to 
blend  together  in  the  same  proportion.  Thus  it  is 
with  the  presentation  of  Christ  to  men.  He  is  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  and  yet  he  is 
forever  new.  Hold  him  up  before  men,  and  you 
show  beauties,  and  glories,  and  truths  which  will  en- 
trance the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  peoples,  and  you 
can  make  this  impression  new  every  moment.  The 
idea  of  a  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ  saying  he  is  afraid 
the  Gospel  will  become  a  little  stale  if  he  keeps  it 
before  the  people  all  the  time !  It  is  the  one  subject 
which  never  will  become  stale. 

Tell  men  of  Jesus,  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  and  they 
will  listen  to  you.     Tell  the  story  of  his  dying  love, 


212  Missionary  Addresses. 

and  risen  power,  and  enthroned  glory  ;  present  it  con- 
tinually as  something  which  will  come  into  their 
hearts,  and  into  their  homes,  and  meet  them  in  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  life,  soothe  their  sorrows,  sweeten  their 
griefs,  lighten  their  burdens,  and  fulfill  their  every 
want,  and  you  will  never  find  the  people  growing 
weary  ;  never.  That  is  as  true  in  this  country  as  in  a 
heathen  land. 

4.  We  have  thus  seen  what  the  prophet's  message 
is,  and  may  next  inquire  what  the  full  intent  of  his 
mission  is.  What  is  he  to  accomplish  ?  What  are  to 
be  the  results  of  his  mission  to  the  nations  ? 

The  prophet  Jeremiah  received  his  commission  in 
very  extraordinary  terms.  He  was  to  "  root  out,  and 
pull  down,  and  destroy,  and  throw  down,  and  also  to 
build  and  to  plant."  The  prophet  to  the  nations  in 
our  era  enters  upon  a  career  which  strikingly  fulfills 
all  these  conditions.  He  holds  aloof  from  political 
strife  and  turmoil ;  he  defers  to  authority,  and  obeys 
the  powers  that  be ;  he  respects  the  traditions  and 
prejudices  of  the  people ;  he  is  a  messenger  of  the 
heavenly  King,  and  hence  he  does  not  entangle  him- 
self with  earthly  things ;  he  lives  for  one  object,  and 
that  is  of  a  spiritual  nature ;  and  yet  he  inevitably 
will  be  found  pulling  down  and  throwing  down,  root- 
ing out  and  destroying.  From  the  very  beginning  it 
has  been  so.  When  Paul  was  in  Ephesus  he  had  not 
the  opportunity  which  I  enjoy  in  Calcutta.  I  can 
preach  against  any  iniquity  in  the  empire,  but  Paul 
hardly  dared  to  mention  above  a  whisper  the  great 
sins  of  the  Roman  Empire,  scarcely  dared  to  lift  up 
his  voice  against  any  of  the  great  iniquities  of  that 
day  in  the  organized  form  in  which  they  met  him ; 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  213 

but  lie  quietly  worked  away,  and  no  one  would  have 
noticed  that  he  was  pulling  down  any  thing.  Two 
years,  however,  had  hardly  passed  until  all  the  city 
was  aroused.  The  great  idol  in  its  temple  was 
thought  to  be  trembling,  and  the  people  of  Ephesus 
were  in  a  frenzy  lest  the  little  obscure  Jew  in  their 
midst  should  throw  their  whole  system  of  idolatry. 

This  illustrates  the  simple  but  mighty  powrer  of 
the  prophet.  He  has  but  to  put  the  simple  truth 
before  the  people,  and  keep  it  before  them,  and  in 
due  time  it  will  develop  a  power  to  pull  down  and 
overthrow  which  neither  friend  nor  foe  at  first  could 
have  anticipated  for  it.  He  is  a  man  appointed  to 
turn  and  overturn,  and,  whether  he  intends  it  or  not, 
strongholds  will  fall  down  and  abuses  be  rooted  up 
before  him  wherever  he  goes.  The  first  missionaries 
to  India  landed  upon  those  distant  shores  with 
timid  footsteps,  and  dreamed  of  nothing  more  than 
permission  to  deliver  their  Master's  message.  They 
were  only  too  glad  to  hold  aloof  from  all  political 
interests,  but  as  the  years  went  by  the  eternal  laws  of 
truth  began  to  manifest  themselves  as  in  every  past 
age.  The  missionary  was  in  due  time  found  pulling 
down  the  suttee,  rooting  out  caste  oppression,  over- 
throwing the  semi-serfdom  of  the  indigo  districts, 
warring  against  the  opium  plague,  crying  out  against 
the  liquor  traffic,  and  contending  for  the  liberation  of 
widows,  and  abolition  of  infant  marriages.  It  is  idle 
to  say  that  he  ought  not  to  meddle  with  such  matters. 
He  cannot  help  it.  His  Master  is  the  Friend  of  hu- 
manity, the  Deliverer  of  the  oppressed,  and  wherever 
the  Christian  prophet  goes  there  will  be  a  pulling 
down,    and   rooting   out,   and   overthrowing  of  old 


211  Missionary  Addresses.    . 

abuses.  It  follows  that  the  missionary  prophet  must 
be  a  man  of  broad  views,  a  man  who,  while  not  losing 
sight  of  his  message,  will  have  his  eye  fixed  upon  the 
ultimate  results  to  be  expected,  and  who  will  have  a 
mind  and  heart  wide  enough  and  warm  enough  to 
grasp  every  real  interest  of  the  people  to  whom  he 
goes.  A  prophet  is  disarmed  and  unfitted  for  ef- 
fective duty  whenever  he  allows  himself  to  become 
afraid  of  the  results  of  his  own  preaching.  He  must 
be  a  man  who  calmly  delivers  his  message,  and  awaits 
the  result  with  equal  unconcern  whether  a  leaf  or  a 
universe  shall  fall. 

But  the  missionary  prophet  must  not  only  pull 
down  and  root  out,  lie  must  also  plant  and  build  up. 
The  man  who  can  destroy  and  pull  down,  but  who 
has  no  power  to  create  and  build  up,  is  not  a  safe 
man  to  be  intrusted  with  power  among  the  nations. 
Hence  God  does  not  leave  his  prophet  to  stand  in  help- 
less wonder  among  the  ruins  which  he  heaps  up 
around  him,  but  makes  him  a  planter  and  a  builder, 
and  this  latter  part  of  his  mission  is  vastly  greater 
than  the  former.  Almost  any  man  can  pull  down  a 
house,  but  not  one  in  a  thousand  could  build  it  up 
again. 

The  prophet  has  both  to  plant  and  build.  He 
plants  the  church,  the  school,  the  press,  the  orphan- 
age, each  of  which  is  to  expand  and  grow  long  after 
he  is  in  his  grave.  He  builds,  too,  by  laying  down 
great  principles  which  are  to  remain  as  firm  as  granite 
in  the  foundations  of  churches  and  nations  through 
all  the  years.  He  needs  to  be  a  statesman  as  well  as 
a  prophet,  a  man  who  can  grasp  firmly  a  great  com- 
plexity of  interests,  and  estimate  correctly  the  im- 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  215 

portance  of  each.  He  must  know  how  to  bring  order 
out  of  confusion,  and  cause  the  vision  of  the  new  to 
rise  to  view  before  the  wreck  of  the  old  overwhelms 
the  public  with  apathy  or  despair. 

It  will  be  said,  no  doubt,  that  the  prophet  is  not 
this  kind  of  a  man  ;  that  he  is  seldom  a  man  of  affairs, 
and  rarely  a  man  of  constructive  genius.  There  may 
be  more  or  less  of  truth  in  this.  The  prophet  may 
not  be  a  great  financier,  and  as  a  class,  his  brethren 
may  not  have  been  successful  men  of  business,  but 
nevertheless  the  voice  of  the  prophet  is  heard  wher- 
ever the  work  of  planting  and  building  goes  forward. 
Every  Zerubbabel  needs  his  Haggai  and  his  Zechariah, 
and  every  great  enterprise  needs  its  prophets.  They 
are  the  men  who  walk  in  advance,  who  create  thought, 
and  mold  opinion,  and,  warm  the  heart,  and  kindle 
enthusiasm,  and  thus  make  it  possible  for  other  men 
nearer  at  hand  to  accomplish  results  which  they  see 
from  afar.  Whether  you  go  back  to  the  remote  past, 
or  survey  the  condition  of  the  world  to-day,  you  will 
every-where  find  the  prophet  in  the  van  of  every 
great  religious  advance. 

5.  And  now,  in  conclusion,  allow  me  to  say  that 
the  great  demand  of  the  hour  in  our  mission-fields  is 
for  the  voice  of  the  living  prophet.  Other  men  are 
needed  too,  and  will  be  needed,  but  the  man  needed 
above  all  others  is  the  prophet.  We  need  the  man 
upon  whose  head  has  come  the  invisible  tongue  of 
flame,  whose  lips  have  been  touched  by  a  living  coal 
taken  from  the  altar  in  the  skies.  We  long  for  men 
who  have  courage  and  wisdom  to  fit  them  to  stand 
before  kings  and  before  nations,  and  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Most  High  God,  deliver  the  message  of 


216  Missionary  Addresses. 

living  truth  which  the  Spirit  puts  upon  their  lips. 
We  pray  for  men  who  shall  be  able  to  stand  at  the 
forefront  of  every  nation,  and  tribe,  and  kindred,  and 
people  of  this  wide  globe,  and  speak  directly  from 
God  and  for  God,  that  all  the  people  of  the  world 
may  speedily  know  that  Jesus  lives  to  save. 

Do  you  aspire  to  be  one  of  such  a  band  of  anointed 
men  ?  No  doubt  some  of  you  begin  to  feel  that  a 
new  fire  burns  within  your  hearts,  and  you  timidly 
venture  to  hope  that  it  may  be  your  favored  lot  to  go 
forth  before  many  years  have  passed  to  prophesy 
unto  the  nations.  I  would  not  for  a  moment  urge 
you  to  decide  the  question  of  your  future  rashly,  or 
trusting  in  your  own  wisdom,  but  at  the  same  time  I 
would  urge  you  not  to  stifle  the  Spirit's  conviction, 
not  to  quench  the  holy  fire  wThich  begins  to  glow 
within  your  hearts.  If  you  seek  congenial  associa- 
tions, rapid  promotion,  and  quickly  fading  fame,  you 
can  find  these  things  in  any  city  or  town  at  home. 
If  you  seek  splendid  opportunities  for  great  achieve- 
ments, the  development  of  a  noble  manhood,  and  the 
final  reward  of  a  royal  victor,  go  forth  among  the 
prophets  to  the  nations.  You  may  choose  your  ideal 
to-day,  and  at  once  proceed  to  read  your  future.  You 
may  become  a  lineal  descendant  of  Elijah,  of  the  man 
of  Jehovah  who  compelled  fire  and  rain  to  obey  him, 
who  rebuked  his  angry  monarch,  and  who  spoke  to 
the  people  as  one  who  had  been  made  the  very  mouth 
of  God.  See  him  yonder  at  the  mouth  of  his  cave 
on  Iloreb.  Earthquake  and  fire  and  tempest  have 
passed,  and  now  at  the  sound  of  the  still  small  voice 
the  man  of  God,  with  his  face  reverently  veiled  in 
his  old  camel's-hair  mantle,  goes  forth  to  speak  face 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  217 

to  face  with  Jehovah.  He  lias  a  sad  report  to  render. 
He  speaks  of  the  nation  to  which  he  had  been  sent, 
and  faithfully  recounts  all  the  sad  lapses  of  the  peo- 
ple. Now  contrast  with  this  mighty  man  one  of  our 
modern  conventional  prophets.  He  has  just  returned 
from  an  evening  party.  No  leather  strap  girds  his 
swallow-tail  coat  about  him,  but  his  neck  is  girt  about 
with  a  strip  of  faultless  cambric.  He  is  a  dainty 
man,  and  in  elegant  phrase  he  tells  the  story  of  his 
success.  He  is  on  a  high  tide  of  prosperity.  More 
pews  have  been  rented  than  in  former  years,  and  the 
price  realized  has  been  higher  than  ever  before. 
The  music  is  more  expensive,  and  the  sanctuary 
made  more  inaccessible  to  the  poor  than  it  has  ever 
been,  and  this  is  called  success !  The  man  who  best 
succeeds  in  setting  up  that  abomination  of  Protestant 
desolation,  the  exclusion  of  the  poor  from  the  sanc- 
tuary, is  regarded  as  a  very  successful  preacher ! 

My  young  brethren,  choose  your  model.  Will  yon 
become  conventional  ministers,  or  anointed  prophets  ? 
In  the  wide  mission-field  we  have  no  work  for  the 
former  class,  but  we  do  want  the  prophet.  We  want 
men  who  have  the  courage,  and  rugged  strength,  and 
mangincent  manhood  of  good  old  Elijah.  But  we 
want  those  features  softened  a  little.  In  Elijah's 
time  the  best  of  the  servants  of  God  did  not  move  in 
the  midst  of  the  softening  influences  which  we  have 
around  us  in  this  late  day  of  the  Christian  era.  He 
did  not  understand,  as  we  understand,  the  constrain- 
ing power  of  the  love  of  Christ.  As  we  look  at  him, 
standing  out  in  the  dim  twilight  of  that  far-off  age  in 
which  he  lived,  he  presents  a  noble  picture  of  a  mag- 
nificent man,  but  he  was  a  man  of  a  dispensation  of 


218  Missionary  Addresses. 

shadows,  and  the  prophet  of  Jesus  Christ  must  be  a 
better  man  than  even  Elijah. 

A  few  weeks  a^o  while  searching  for  information 
about  the  Eastern  Archipelago  I  chanced  to  fall  upon 
a  story  of  missionary  adventure  and  martyrdom  which 
stirred  my  heart  as  it  had  seldom  been  stirred  before. 
A  little  more  than  half  a  century  ago  two  young  men 
sailed  from  this  very  port  for  those  beautiful  islands 
in  the  far-off  eastern  sea.  They  landed  in  Java,  and 
leaving  their  wives  in  Batavia  sailed  to  Sumatra  to 
select  a  permanent  field  of  labor.  They  landed  in 
due  time,  met  with  encouragement,  and  soon  set  out 
on  an  exploring  expedition  into  the  interior.  For 
some  days  all  went  well,  but  one  afternoon  as  they 
were  nearing  a  village  they  were  suddenly  set  upon 
by  men  who  had  been  lying  in  ambush,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  both  were  murdered.  The  body  of  one  of 
them  furnished  a  repast  to  the  savages  that  evening, 
and  the  other  was  eaten  the  following  morning.  The 
mothers  of  both  these  young  martyrs  were  widows. 
When  the  dreadful  tidings  reached  this  country,  the 
mother  of  one  of  them,  Henry  Lyman,  was  alone  at 
home.  Henry  had  been  the  eldest  born,  and  the 
other  children  were  at  school.  The  widow's  brother 
called,  and  soon  he  was  followed  by  her  pastor,  and 
only  too  soon  she  knew  that  they  were  the  bearers  of 
heavy  tidings.  When  she  learned  that  her  son  was 
dead  the  stricken  mother  was  so  prostrated  that  she 
threw  herself  upon  a  couch,  and  seemed  like  one  ut- 
terly crushed.  In  the  meantime  the  children  had 
been  called  from  school,  and  when  they  came  in  the 
bereaved  mother  rose,  gathered  them  around  her,  and 
asked  that  the  letters  be  read.     Up  to  this  time  she 


The  Prophet  to  the  Nations.  219 

had  supposed  that  her  son  had  died  at  home,  with  his 
wife  by  his  bedside,  and  that  a  green  grave  in  that 
distant  land  would  mark  the  spot  where  his  ashes 
rested.  But  as  the  letters  were  read  the  awful  truth 
flashed  upon  her  that  her  son  had  been  murdered  : 
and  as  they  read  on  the  horrible  fact  was  added  that  his 
body  had  been  eaten  by  cannibals.  The  poor  suffering 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  heart-broken  and  crushed  as 
she  was,  ready  to  sink  as  she  had  seemed  but  a  mo- 
ment before,  after  a  groan  of  unutterable  anguish,  ex- 
claimed, "  O,  what  can  those  poor  people  do  without 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?"  And  when  the  reading 
was  finished,  and  she  was  able  to  join  in  the  conversa- 
tion she  said,  "  I  bless  God  who  gave  me  such  a  son 
to  go  to  the  heathen,  and  I  never  felt  so  strongly  as  I 
do  this  moment  the  desire  that  some  other  of  my  chil- 
dren may  become  missionaries  and  go  to  teach  those 
savage  men  who  have  slain  Henry." 

My  young  brethren,  add  this  spirit  of  Christian 
love,  the  constraining  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the 
spirit  of  Elijah,  and  you  have  the  kind  of  spirit  which 
must  inspire  the  prophet  who  goes  forth  to  the  na- 
tions. That  noble  woman  knew  what  the  dying  love 
of  Jesus  was,  and  she  breathed  the  spirit  of  him 
whose  name  she  bore.  While  such  disciples  live  we 
may  hope  for  our  race.  The  world  is  waiting  for 
prophets  who  can  go  forth  in  the  rugged  strength  of 
Elijah,  and  yet  with  the  tenderness  and  quenchless 
love  of  the  mother  of  Henry  Lyman.  God  is  calling, 
the  Church  is  calling,  a  dying  world  is  calling,  and 
my  prayer  is  that  some  of  you  may  hear  and  heed  the 
trumpet  notes  which  summon  you  to  go  forth.  I 
would  lay  no  burden  upon  you,  would  put  no  undue 
15 


220  Missionary  Addresses. 

pressure  upon  you,  but  I  beseech  you  not  to  turn 
lightly  away  from  the  question  of  personal  duty.  I 
come  as  a  prophet  to  you,  in  name  of  the  Master  of 
us  all.  I  appeal  to  you  for  him.  If  he  calls  you,  in 
his  name  I  bid  you  go  forth. 


THE    END. 


Date  Due 

a%^ 

^immm 

mm** 

\j  *j  t\ 

JUN  1 5 

:    JUN  1 

51991 

m 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

*»! 


